Television has become a part of our everyday lives. Chances are in most households, low income or high income, there is some sort of television present in the living room. Popular culture has attracted the masses to sit in front of television screens for hours on end on a daily basis. Adolescents join adults in front of television screens from an early age. Some questions as an educator that I would like to ask are: what educational television programs are available to adolescents? and how much television viewed by adolescents is educational?
Research has shown that by the time a teenager has finished high school they will have spent more hours in front of a television screen than in class. The amount of educational television viewed is different for each individual. There are many different educational programs available for youth of all ages. PBS Kids offers educational television shows for children from the ages of 2-8, such as: Curious George, and Sesame Street. Sesame Street has been known for teaching children the alphabet, concepts of friendship and community, as well basic language skills. Shows on Nick Jr. such as “Ni Hao Kai Lan” and “Dora The Explorer,” expose children to different cultures and language. In a house hold where learning a new language is valued, children may be able to learn words or phrases of the Chinese and Spanish language by watching “Ni Hao Kai Lan” and “Dora The Explorer.” Among other channels and networks, the History Channel, Food Network, Animal Planet, most news channels, and the National Geographic Channel all offer opportunities to learn about the history of our planet, and what it has to offer.
As an educator in a world where technology and society changes as fast as the speed of light, it is my duty to adapt in the classroom to keep my students engaged and on their toes. Involving television as text could be, and should be, on my agenda. Every student carries their own interests. As an educator I have to find new and interesting methods of pedagogy that will help open the minds of my students in a classroom environment that allows all students to explore their interests. It is easy to find a place for educational television within a lesson plan. For example: students may be asked to critically analyze a debate between republicans and democrats and bring to class their own ideas and arguments developed through watching the debate. Students can then conduct their own debate in class. An experience like this can help students with their organization of data, and public speaking skills. The experience can also get students to become more aware about the nation they live in; which should be one of the many goals for educators across the nation.
The amount of media readily available to the youth makes it very difficult to monitor or control what they watch and learn. With guidance and communication between educators, parents, and students; adolescents may be able to flip through their television channels and find an educational network. Whether or not they will stay on that channel and learn something valuable is another question. Students must want to learn in order to learn. If students come from an environment where reality shows, and the “Jersey Shore,” are valued more than educational television; then as an educator it is my job to try and break that mold and encourage the exploration of educational television networks by incorporating them within my lesson plans.
Important Links:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1054139X00001282
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/books/review/its-complicated-by-danah-boyd.html?_r=0
As what you have mentioned in your writing, TV is part of our daily lives. Without a doubt, incorporating it into the realm of teaching and learning should be in every educator’s mind. When I was a Foreign Language teacher (Chinese) in Hong Kong, I noticed that using TV programs could greatly increase expatriate students’ interest in learning Chinese culture, and which is especially true for younger students (K-3). Chinese culture could easily seem alien to those students. Some TV programs use adorable and representative cartoon characters, such as panda, and dragon, to transform rather uneasy-to-comprehend Chinese culture into very simple and interesting stories. Animated story with simple Chinese expressions and English subtitles not only offers students the knowledge of Chinese culture, but also the extra exposure to the Chinese pronunciation. Using the TV program in my teaching surely enlivens my classes.
However, good and appropriate TV programs are like needle in haystack. Spotting them needs variety knowledge, such as knowing your students, and knowing the feature of a particular TV program. Educators first themselves need to acquire professional knowledge about implying media and technology. Then our judgments will be a lot more beneficial for our students.
Nate,
You did a great job tackling a very tough issue. TV seems like an easy choice but because it is so imbedded in our cultural way of life, it is actually one of the harder aspects of media to address. Your choice to narrow the scope of your critique down to educational programming was necessary because there is such a wide range of television programming.
You excelled operating within this scope. I love your point about the range of educational opportunity available within television programming, especially within TV directed at youth. I watch a lot of travel channel, acknowledging its power to expose viewers to cultural diversity but I never recognized this same function within Dora the Explorer or Ni Hao Kai Lan (nor did I recognize the language development function). The same could be said for your points regarding televisions ability to expose viewers to history, the natural world, food culture, etc.
I do want to challenge you to expand your notion of “educational programming” to include shows that are not explicitly educational. It is within these shows that we have the richest texts for critical social analysis. Helping students view traditionally non-educational television from a critical lens is what is going to build their critical media literacy skills and impact their experience of television moving forward. Based on discussions we’ve had across several classes I know you are aware of this and assume the omission was simply a result of the focus you chose to use within this broad topic.