Additional Information:

(From Teachers Handbook - 1975)

Television Production Department -

Since 1956 pupils in Washington County have received by television selected courses in their program of education.

Telecasts originate in the Instructional Resource Center's studios located within the Central Office of the Board of Education. They are transmitted to schools by coaxial cable over a six-channel, closed-circuit system or distributed by video tape cassettes delivered to the individual schools for use within their established schedules.

Approximately twenty-five telecasts are produced each week on video tape. With repeat playbacks and program material received and distributed front the Maryland Public Television Network, there are approximately one hundred and twenty-five transmissions each week to the schools of Washington County over the TV cable system.

Instruction in the elementary schools is augmented by the use of eleven locally produced tele-lessons and eight telecasts available from the state lTV network. Areas of service are music, art, science, social studies, reading, nutrition and ecology. The middle schools instructional program is supplemented in science, mathematics, music and art. Four of these telecasts are provided by the state lTV network. A programmed series of social studies films is also available for integration into the curriculum.

At the high school level, televised instruction in English, business mathematics, biology and contemporary problems is provided by this school system. The state lTV network presents a series of calculus lessons. A sequented program of social studies films is also available to the classroom teacher.

While the major part of television teaching is instruction of basic course content, there are some telecasts that are of the supplemental and enrichment nature. There are also special telecasts for in-service training and for the dissemination of information to the administrative staff, school principals, teachers, and students.

The role of tile TV Production Department is to translate each course's curriculum objective into educationally valid instructional television. This is accomplished through "production team" meetings for each TV course, involving the TV production managers, TV directors, TV teachers and other support instructional personnel. Within these "production team" meetings are developed interesting and stimulating methods for presenting the defined curriculum objectives, these ideas became the framework for the television script which is then developed cooperatively by the television teacher and the television director.

The TV Production Department also works closely with school principals and instructional supervisors in the decisions as to the course offerings that will make up the television schedule for the coming school year. Tile production managers work with the formulation of the schedule of regular telecasts so that the offerings stay within the parameters imposed by existing facilities and equipment. Once these decisions have been made, it is the responsibility of the production managers to assign the necessary facilities and personnel to the daily production schedule so telecasts are recorded in sufficient time for scheduled transmission to the schools.

Classroom and studio teachers also function as teams in curriculum planning, teaching and evaluating. Both have unique roles but each complements and supplements the work of the other. For each television course there is a committee of classroom teachers who meet with the studio teacher for planning and evaluation. The total learning experience for the pupil in courses employing television is planned as a two-part unit: learnings that are guided by tile studio teacher and activities planned and initiated by the classroom teacher.

While television is a one-way medium of communication, the television teacher using effective teaching methods can draw upon the unique potentials of electronic tools and other aids in the studio to provide active mental, emotional and sometimes physical experiences for pupils during a telecast.

Resources not readily accessible m many classrooms, such as live or recorded current happenings, films, new information and data and guests who contribute to learning because of their special knowledge, talents or skills, become important elements of many television lessons.

Studio teachers need to keep in touch with those they teach and welcome invitations from classroom teachers to visit classes. Television is, in itself, a medium of communication. Its value in education is determined by the imagination, sincerity and skill of the instructional staff of Washington County who produce and utilize what is transmitted.