The changing role of television in education

Educational television must be viewed with an eye to where it fits into the learning process.

People learn through a wide range of modalities: visual, auditory, kinaesthetic. Given this perspective, modern education must be willing to use as many different learning modalities as there are students.

TV today forms an integral part of the entire educational process. Today's young have become avid screen-agers, watching TV or browsing the internet. Modern societies expect TV, especially public broadcasting, to serve the educational needs of viewers by offering educational programming.

Ten years ago Malta joined others, mostly in the United States because of the presence of cable networking, in having its own educational channel. It took place on October 18, 1996 during a live broadcast from the Bibliotecha, in Valletta.

Education broadcasting in Malta has a long history starting in the late 1940s. With the introduction of cable TV, the government acquired a provision for an educational channel.

Responsible for this new channel in the Education Division was the Media Education & Broadcasting Centre, which was also at the time introducing media education as an inter-disciplinary subject in primary schools. A number of teachers were trained hands-on in TV production with special emphasis on the connection existing between the academic curriculum in schools and the art of edutainment. UN and Council of Europe media advisers were engaged to spearhead the dynamics of this new approach.

Educational TV content in the new universe of multi-channel technology is likely to stay in a lower priority scale than the escapist entertainment programming that generates the most revenues. In the increasingly interdependent global village, however, people feel the need to become better educated for the sake of their personal and family survival. Earlier this month, the European Commission launched a public consultation process on public media literacy that is "the ability to judge the true merit of media content and make conscious choices".

It was against such a backdrop that 10 years ago Education 22 made its mark on the small screen. Schedules addressed interactive TV programmes. With limited resources and small miracles a lot was achieved in a very short time. Innovative approaches to educational games (Tezor), new ways of teaching literacy (Bum Bum il-Ktieb), grand celebrations of children's abilities and talents (Hu Cans, Hames Caghkiet, Scooters, Ara x'Sibt) were the order of the day. TV series included appetising shots at history with a location trip Minn Zmien ghall-Iehor. Media education itself was a common tool to combine critical analysis with analytical criticism (Cicero, Ulisse, Newstory), the backbone of educational programming as different from encyclopaedic information.

A strong feature in the TV weekly schedule forming at least 30 per cent of all output was occupied by foreign productions mostly from BBC in London. A long list of first showings in the Mediterranean region peaked prime time viewing including Robert Hughes's American Visions, A Skirt Through History, The Planets, The Making Of Mankind, Earthstory, Triumph Of The West, Lives Of Jesus, Renaissance and Supernatural Science to mention just a few.

The Media Education and Broadcasting Centre also established an educational video library that was frequented by viewers of all ages free of charge.

Education 22 also collaborated with other educational institutions. A co-production with Ireland and Switzerland highlighted the plight of migrant workers on the continent in an eight-episode series, Work in Progress, which eventually was shown in several European countries.

Local institutions, among them the university, assisted in content on media (Mediamix), the environment, mathematics and science (Galileo). Programmes focusing on lifelong education for adults collaborated with the Università tat-Terza Età (Fuq il-50), the ETC and the Centre for Labour Studies.

Above all, Education 22 encouraged reading (e-Ktieb), values and IT education.

Unfortunately, as with many other new ventures in a small economy and not very different from other local media channels, Education 22 suffered from limited funds. A very ambitious project, which never materialised, was the Open University through which the Maltese would have enjoyed the myriad of courses via television inviting adults to follow various disciplines with a qualification at the end. Financial constraints pushed the project down the priority ladder as is often the fortune of quality programmes on our broadcast media till this very day.

What constitutes educational broadcasting? It is not unlike Discovery or the History channels, though it is not always thematic; it should aim to reach its educational objectives with professional preparation, clear targets and quality imparting of specific content. It is not served by non-interactive sessions of talking heads; random access to events without any value-laden intervention. It could be entertaining with a scope but definitely not as a first priority.

Very often we refer to what is obligatory in TV channels funded by public revenues citing the three pillars of TV content as information, education and entertainment. Judging from our own media landscape it is at times regrettable that as a society we easily content ourselves with cheap entertainment or information that is readily available on the internet. This risks the educational nature of a broadcast becoming educational only in its label.

Mr Xuereb was head of the educational channel when it was launched in 1996.