Audio visual aids in education

Prepared by
MS.Thamil selvi.D Bsc(N).R.N.R.M

USE OF AUDIO VISUAL AIDS IN TEACHING

INTRODUCTION

Audio-visual aids, audio-visual material, ‘audio-visual media’, ‘communication technology’, educational or instructional media; and ‘learning resources’ – all these terms, broadly speaking, mean the same thing. Earlier the term used was audio-visual aids in education. With the advancement in the means of communication and that of technology, educators coined new terms. More specifically media refers to films, filmstrips, recordings, etc... The use of newer terms “educational technology” or “instructional technology” is primarily due to the dynamic expansion of programmed learning, computer assisted instruction and educational TV. This revolution in the field of audio-visual education is the outcome of the development in electronics, notably those involving the radio, tape recorder and computer.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE USE OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS:

A Dutch humanist, theologian and writer Desiderious Erasmus (1466-1536) discouraged memorization as techniques of learning and advocated that children should learn through the aid of pictures or other visuals. John Amos comenius (1592-1670) prepared a book known as orbit sensulium pictus (the world of sense objects) which contained about 150 pictures on aspects of everyday life. The book is considered to be the first illustrated textbook for children education. This book gained wide publicity and was used in childhood education centers all over the world. Jean jacks Rousseau (1712-1778) and other educators stressed the need of pictures and other play materials. Rousseau condemned the use of words by teacher and he stressed ‘things’. He pleaded that the teaching process must be directed to the learner’s natural curiosity. Pestalozzi (1756-1827) put Rousseau’s theory into action in his ‘object method’. He based instruction on sense perception.

The term ‘visual education’ was used as early as 1926 by nelson I green. Eric asliby (1967) identified four revolutions in education: education from home to school, written words as tool of education, invention of printing and use of books and lastly the fourth revolution in the use of electronic media, i.e. Radio, television, tape recorder and computer in education.

DEFINITION OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS :

1. Audio-visual aids are those aids, which help in completing the triangular process of learning, i.e. Motivation, classification and stimulation.
- Carter V. Good
2. Audio-visual aids are any device, which can be used to make the learning experience more concentrate, more realistic and more dynamic.
- Kinder, S. James.
3.Audio-visual aids are anything by means of which learning process may be encouraged or carried on through the sense of hearing or sense of sight.
- Good’s dictionary of education.

IMPORTANT VALUES OF THE PROPER USE OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS :

1.ANTIDOTE TO THE DISEASE OF VERBAL INSTRUCTION:

They help to reduce verbalism. They help in giving clear concepts and thus help to bring accuracy in learning. As observed by Raymond wyman (1957) “we (teacher) tell students, and we provide them with written material so they are easily produced, reproduced, stored and transported. But the overuse or excessive use of words can result in serious problem, chiefly, the problem of verbalism (using or adopting words or phrases without considering what they mean) and forgetting”.

2.BEST MOTIVATORS

They are the best motivators. The students work with more interest and zeal. They are more attentive.

3.CLEAR IMAGES:

These images are formed when we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell as our experiences are direct, concrete, and more or less permanent. Learning through the senses becomes the most natural and consequently the easiest.

4.VICARIOUS EXPERIENCES:

It is beyond doubts that the first-hand experiences are the best type of educative experience. But it is neither practicable nor desirable to provide such experience to pupils. Substituted experiences may be provided under such conditions. There are many inaccessible objects and phenomena. For example it is not possible for the pupils living in India to see the Eskimo to climb the Mount Everest. There are innumerable such things to which it is not all such cases, these aids help us.

5. VARIETY:

‘Mere chalk and talk do not ‘do not help. Audio-visual aids give variety and provide different tools in the hands of the teacher like models, transparencies.

6.FREEDOM :

When audio-visual aids are employed, there is great scope for children to more about, talk, laugh and comment upon. Under such an atmosphere the students work and not because the teacher wants them to work.

7.OPPRTUNITIES TO HANDLE AND MANIPULATE :
Many visuals aids offer opportunities to students to handle and manipulate things.

8. RETENTIVITY:

Audio-visual aids contribute to increased retentively as they stimulate response of the whole organism to the situation in which learning takes place.

9.BASED ON MAXIMS OF TEACHING :

The use of audio-visual aids enables the teacher to follow the maxims of teaching like ‘concrete to abstract’, ‘known to unknown’, and ‘learning by doing".

10.HELPFUL IN ATTRACTING ATTENTION:

Attention is the true factor in any process of teaching and learning. Audio-visual aids help the teacher is providing proper environment for capturing as well as sustaining the attention and interest f the students in the classroom work.

11.HELPFUL IN FIXING UP NEW LEARNING:

‘What is gained in terms of learning needs to be fixed up in the minds of students?’ Audio-visual aids help in achieving this objective by providing several activities, experiences and stimuli to the learner.

12.REALISM:

The use of audio-visual aids o\provides a touch of reality to the learning situation. By seeing a film show exhibiting the life of the people of the tundra region, students learn it more effectively in about 2 hours than by spending weeks by reading.

The other points are as follows;

• Meeting individual differences.
• Encouragement to healthy classroom interactions.
• Spread of education on a mass scale.
• Promotion of scientific temper.
• Development of higher faculties
• Reinforcement of learners.
• Positive transfer of learning and training.
• Positive environment for creative discipline.
  

PSYCHOLOGY OF USING TEACHING AIDS:

Interest in the role of the senses in learning was already therein educational circles when instructional media began their as cadency. It has long been recognized that the various senses condition the reception of messages the communications arc. Research done by co bun (1968) indicated that:

1. One % of what is learned is form the sense of taste.
2. 1.5% of what is learned is form the sense of touch.
3. 3.5% of what is learned from the sense of smell.
4. 11 % of what is learned is from the sense of learning.
5. 83 % of what is learned is from the sense of sight.

Retention of what is learned is likewise related to sense experience. Observation and research by co bun tended to show holding time as nearly constant as possible that people generally remember.

§ Ten percent of what they read.
§ Twenty percent of they hear.
§ Thirty percent o what they see.
§ Fifty percent of what they hear and see.
§ Seventy percent of what they say.
§ Ninety percent what they say as they do a thing.

POPULAR SAYING ON AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS:

“I hear, I forget”
“I see, I remember”
“I do, I understand”

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD TEACHING AIDS:

1. They should be meaningful and purposeful.
2. They should be accurate in every respect.
3. They should be simple.
4. They should be cheap.
5. As for as possible, they should be improvised.
6. They should be large enough to be properly seen by the students for whom they are meant.

CLASSIFICATION OF TEACHING AIDS :

Teaching aids are classifieds in four, which are as follows:
1. Classification number I; projected and non-projected aids.
2. Classification number II: audio materials visual materials and audio-visual materials.
3. Classification number III: big media and little media. Big media include computer, VCR and TV. Little media include radio, films, strips, graphic, audiocassettes and various visuals.
4. Classification number IV: three-dimensional aids models, mock-up, and specimens.

AUDIO-VISUAL COMMUNICATION:

The term ‘audio-visual communication’ is applied to the instructional materials used in teaching situations to facilitate the understanding of spoken and written words. The fact, the term is used to cover the entire range of illustrative instructional materials like visual material: auditory materials and the combination of the two.

Audio-visual communication learning programme; and the content of course, information, ideas, thought, etc. prepared for use in such programme are called software, while the audio-visual aids and equipment are called hard-wares. Audio-visual communication appeals to the senses of hearing and seeing. Audio-visual aids are generally used as learning aids complementary to the books and formal classroom instruction.

Comenius was the first educator who prepared and used a book illustrated by pictures to give it a sensory appeal. He found that corrected learning to their experiences. There is more effective in focusing student’s attention and make learning enjoyable.

SIGNIFICANT OF AUDIO-VISUAL CALSSROOM COMMUNICATION:

1.Audio-visual aids and equipments appeal to our senses and open better avenues to learning. It has been rightly observed that the senses gateways to all knowledge.

2.Audio-visual materials because of their sensory appeal enable us to perceive information in better way and increase the retention span of learning.

3.Audio-visual aids the realities of our world to classroom and make learning purposeful.

4.Audio-visual aids make abstract ideas contract and their understanding is facilitated.

5.AV aids make learning quicker in this age of knowledge-explosion.

6.AV materials are economical in the long turn because of their repeat values and coverage of large number of students.

7.AV aids supplement the teacher and are used as complementary aids to normal classroom teaching for reinforcing the spoken and written words.

8.AV aids helps in overcoming the language barrier between the students and the teacher and make learning efficient.

9.AV aids provide a variety of instructional methods and motivate children to learn independents of the teacher at times.

10.AV aids reduces verbalism in the classroom & thus bourdon of students.

PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS:

Psychological studies on learning and retention reveal that 80% of information and its retention are through auditory and visual senses. Because of the sensory appeal of audio-visual aids, the retention span of learning increases are attached to audio-visual aids.

1. Motivation: the sensory appeal of audio-visual aids motivates and stimulates students to learn easily in a related atmosphere.

2. Curiosity: the curiosity of students is aroused due to the novelty and variety in teaching aids when used for classroom teaching.

3. Interest: many AV aids give students the opportunity of manipulative their learning environment and their interest in learning sustained.

4. Real and contrived experiences: with the use of AV aids, students have the direct experiences of real life situations or contrived situations a kin to real one. Such direct experiences make learning meaningful to students.

5. Concretization: AV aids decreases abstractness of spoken and written words to make learning concrete.

6. Attention: through the use of AV aids the attention of students can be secured, as learning becomes a pleasant experience.
Psychology also emphasizes multisensory experiences in learning. Psychologists advocates the maximum of’ ‘more learning, faster learning and longer’, which can only be achieved by arousing all possible senses or gateways of acquiring knowledge.

SUCCESS OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS:

Mere procurement and display of AV aids is not sufficient, they should be used efficiently along with their proper maintenance and enrichment. The main bases for the success of and audio-visual programmes are as follows:
Administrative support: for its effective functions the program requires the support of the institutional head, financial support and cooperation of the faculty.

Suitability:

the AV aids in an institution should be selected on their suitability to the age grade levels of students.

Evaluation:

the effective use of AV aids on students learning should be assessed and strengthened through the scheme for improvement.

DIFFERENT AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS:

Graphic teaching aids: graphic aids are helpful in
· Arresting student’s attention
· Conveying information in a condensed form.
· Presenting information efficiently.
· Concretizing abstract ideas.
· Stimulating interest.

Important to the teaching-learning process are the following graphic aids:

Ø Charts (diagram, maps, posters, graphs)
Ø Cartoons.
Ø Comic strips.

Charts:

Charts are the graphic teaching materials including diagrams, posters, pictures, maps and graphs. It is defined as illustrative visual media for depicting a logical relationship between main ideas and supporting facts.

Types of charts.
1. Tree chars.
2. Stream charts.
3. Table charts.
4. Flow charts.

Pictures

Pictures are the most commonly available graphical aids, pictures includes photographs, painting, illustrations clipped from periodicals.

Diagrams

A diagram is the simplified drawing of an object, product, appliance or process to explain finer points of the same. A diagram is made to show relationships with the help of lines and symbols without the pictorial Elements.

Graphs

Graphs are the visual teaching aids for presenting stastical information and contrasting the trends or changes of certain attributes. Graphs make presentations of quantitative data easily interpretable and readily understood. A huge data and long list of figure is always boring but the same represented by graphs captures attention and makes students think. A good graph can give a lot of information just by shooting a glace at it.

There are four main types of graph namely:

1. Bar graphs.

2. Line graphs.

3. Picture graphs.

4. Pie graphs.

Maps

A map is a graphic aid representing the proportionately as a diagram the surface of the earth, world or parts there of. A map is always drawn to scale, which is mentioned, on one corner of it. Every map should have the following descriptions on it: a title, a grid, a scale, a key, dates on which it has been prepared.
Posters

Posters are the graphic aids with short, quick and typical messages with attention capturing paintings. Posters may be used for one of the following instructional

purposes:

posters may be used for

1. Advertising an event or product.
2. Campaigning for a cause.
3. Giving a directive.
4. Popularizing a slogan.
5. Drawing attention towards desirable actions and values.
6. Giving a warning.
7. Popularizing a symbolic or a sign.
8. Propaganda.

Cartoons

A cartoon is humorous caricature, which gives a subtle message. In a cartoon, the features of objects and people are exaggerated along with generally recognized symbol. In short, a cartoon is a figurative and subtle graphic aid.

Comic strips

A comic strip is the graphic depiction in a series of pictures or sketches of some characters and events fall of action. Children find this medium of communication very interesting and exciting. For telling stories, historical events, life histories, scientific processes etc.

Flashcards

Flash cards are small cards of generally 25*30cm size which are shown for a few moments before the class to send across a message or impart an idea. The idea on the flash card should be brief. Flash cads are especially useful for the drill in various subjects. They may also be used for reviewing a lesson with students. Flash cads would be used along with the other graphic aids to makes the lesson effective.

OTHER AIDS

ü Black board or chalk board.
ü Bulletin board.
ü Flannel board.
ü Magnetic chalkboards.

NON-PROJECTED TEACHING AIDS:

ü Models.
ü Specimens.
ü Exhibitions.
ü Museums.
ü Diorama.

SUMMARRY:

Audio-visual aids are those sensory objects or images, which initiate or stimulate and reinforce learning. Audio-visual aids have values if it used properly. The classification of teaching aids are projected and non-projected aids, audio-visual materials & visuals material, big media and little media, and also three-dimensional aids. The different audio-visual aids are graphs, diagrams, maps, posters, cartoons, comic strips, and flash cards. Audio-visual aids or dives are added devices that help the teacher to clarify, establish, correlate and coordinate accurate concepts.


REFERENCES:

1. Basavanthappa. Nursing education. Ist edition. Jaypee brothers. Medical publishers LTD. New Delhi. 2003. Pp423-434.2. Heidgerken. Teaching and learning in schools of nursing. 3rd ED. Konark publishers Delhi. Pp522-523.