{"id":609,"date":"2010-11-08T08:10:37","date_gmt":"2010-11-08T07:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/?p=609"},"modified":"2010-12-17T11:51:25","modified_gmt":"2010-12-17T10:51:25","slug":"education-using-television","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/?p=609","title":{"rendered":"Education using television"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/piggy.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-608\" title=\"piggy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/piggy-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>The BBC produced adult education television and radio programmes prior to the creation of the OU and it also produced written materials to accompany many of these programmes.\u00a0 One\u00a0series, aimed at farmers, was broadcast in 1968. The Agricultural Producer at the BBC explained that each programme was clearly structured, sometimes the same film was shown twice in order to explain points but that every attempt was made not to patronize. (see Educational Television International, 2, ,2,\u00a0June 1968, pp122-126.\u00a0The booklet, pictured, was free on request and for those farmers who gathered to watch together there were also Tutor Notes which provided both additional background material and suggested topics for discussion.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/five.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-607\" title=\"five\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/five-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The advertisement for a commercial television company (\u2018Look I\u2019m five teachers\u2019) dates from\u00a0January 1969\u00a0and illustrates one of the cases made for the use of television for educational purposes.<\/p>\n<p>This medium had long been conceptualised as of significance (in 1960 William Benton, one of those who played an important part in the OU&#8217;s foundation) said that it \u2018could be the greatest force ever known to deepen our understanding and broaden our knowledge\u2019 (W Benton, Television \u2013 a prescription: a national citizens\u2019 advisory board, <em>Vital speeches of the day<\/em>, 26, 18, pp. 571-574, (p 572).<\/p>\n<p>Certainly\u00a0television helped secure the OU as part of the popular heritage of the UK. Much of the popular affection for the OU might well be due to the use of television for its broadcasts during a period when there were few channels available to UK residents. When Sheila Grant studied in the popular soap <em>Brookside <\/em>it\u00a0was with the OU (and yes she was accused of having an affair with her tutor) and when in\u00a0<em>Life on Mars<\/em> the central character receives\u00a0comforting but complicated messages from across time and space, it was via late-night 1970s Open University programmes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The BBC produced adult education television and radio programmes prior to the creation of the OU and it also produced written materials to accompany many of these programmes.\u00a0 One\u00a0series, aimed at farmers, was broadcast in 1968. The Agricultural Producer at the BBC explained that each programme was clearly structured, sometimes the same film was shown [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-methods-history-of-the-ou"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":775,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions\/775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}