The courses will be mathematics, music, history and similar subjects, with the only direct relationship to "airborne education" being the airborne TV transmitter equipment in the plane; Purdue students will scarcely be disturbed by the DC6AB which will fly at an assigned altitude of 23,000 feet in a circle of 10 miles radius, with the community of Montpelier, Indiana, as the approximate center. The teachers who will be seen on hundreds of televised lessons will have been videotaped in comfortable modern studios long before the first flight is made. A glance at the curriculum planned for 1961-62 reveals the range of courses which will be telecast.

In addition to the current and future doubts in some quarters as to the possibilities and potentialities of such a revolutionary approach to education, misunderstandings will probably continue. But we shall all be in a better position to evaluate the program tentatively in the summer of 1961, and by the summer of 1962, the strengths and weaknesses of such a program should be quite clear.

courses into midwestern schools.

It is far too early to hazard predictions of success or failure; however, that this is a serious endeavor sponsored and performed by a group of diligent and dedicated educators with broad experience, there can be no doubt.

The courses starred above are tentatively planned for telecast during the demonstration period ending May 26, 1961.

It is not our purpose here to discuss the merits and drawbacks in general of educational TV as a method of instruction or tool. It is too broad a field to be treated here, and our focus is on just one facet of it. The question everywhere coming more to the fore today is, "How can we best use TV in our schools?" not "Should we or should we not use TV in our schools?"

Experiments in educational TV are continuing on a rather massive scale. For example, we note that the U.S. Commissioner of Education, under the provisions of the National Defense Education Act of 1958, has made 115 separate grants for various experimentations in educational media of which 42 deal specifically with educational TV.

One of the most promising features of educational TV through MPATI is its design for the small high schools of the Midwest. Here is an opportunity to bring instruction via TV to even the most isolated school. In fact, the experiment is considered to be a pilot project for similar regional projects in other sections of the country. It has even been suggested that eventually a relatively small number of aircraft be used to provide coast-to-coast educational television coverage.

Meanwhile, MPATI will work immediately to establish and insure cooperation with educators and lay groups in the six-State region. A detailed plan for securing cooperation is now in effect. For example, two teacher-education courses related to elementary foreign languages are included in the programming, for it is recognized that most elementary schools will have no qualified teacher in this

area.

At this point, it may be well to examine the nature of instructional TV. The following three patterns of instruction may be identified:

1. Direct and total instruction

This is typified by the well-known Continental Classroom film series. Independent learning by mature students is possible with no teacher present other than the studio instructor. This presentation is least used in the public schools, and it is expected to remain so.

2. Major resource

The course on video tape becomes the major method of presentation. The classroom teacher coordinates and arranges for secondary classroom activities with the students, but the primary responsibility rests with the studio teacher. A foreign language presentation for elementary schools would be an example.

3. Supplementary instruction

The primary responsibility for instruction rests with the classroom teacher, while the studio teacher plans enrichment illustrations and presentations. An example would be a weekly tape in the personal guidance area.

Most TV instruction in our elementary and secondary schools will fall between types 2 and 3.

It is consistently recognized and reiterated by the experimenters in TV that their efforts are predicated upon one important assumption for pre-college learning: TV is a new TOOL. TV can never replace classroom teachers; in fact, only among the uninitiated is such a thought ever voiced. It would be as foolhardy for educators to reject TV arbitrarily as it would be for them to assume that the moment of eliminating classroom teachers had arrived.

Educators in our small high schools should observe closely the results of MPATI in order to determine the extent to which it achieves its four stated purposes:

To broaden the range of educational offerings available to many schools. To increase the quality of offerings in schools and colleges where resources are unavailable or inadequate at present.

To do these at a cost that is less than that for a comparable increase in quality achieved by other means.

To conduct the initial program in a manner that will assist the development of a permanent facility for the long-range management and financing of the airborne instructional program by local and State educational authorities.

Thousands of professional workers will be involved directly in this program before even the maiden flight of the DC6AB. But it is evident that a tremendous burden of responsibility rested on the 18 talented and experienced classroom teachers who were selected from among several hundred teacher-applicants.

In a profession too often geared to parsimonious measures it should be heartening to teachers everywhere to find a $7 million investment which rests principally on the talents of 18 quite representative classroom teachers. (A $4.5 million appropriation from the Ford Foundation constitutes the principal contribution to this project.)

On one focal point in the profession of education today all divergent elements are repeatedly converging. That is the mutual desire to improve learning. We do not yet know what contribution, if any, MPATI will make in this direction, but Dr. Samuel Brownell, MPATI Chairman, Superintendent of Schools for Detroit and formerly U.S. Commissioner of Education, has summarized its intent in these words:

Hundreds of important decisions have had to be made by hundreds of educators, technicians and others to bring us to even this stage of development. Despite relentless deadlines, however, quality has been the watchword.

If all who read these words-and who are assisting or participating in this program in any way-will help us adhere to the highest standards, then the end product cannot help but emerge as a substantial contribution to the quality of education in American classrooms.

Results of neither this nor any experiment can ever be wholly anticipated, however. Consider for a moment the message written recently by a young boy in a TV course to the studio teacher he had never met, "You are the first teacher I've ever had who understood me."

Rather than representing an atypical observation by our new generation, this remark may become a minor classic in illustrating the many new forces which will shape educational theory and practice during the 1960's.

All letters of inquiry requesting materials on the technical and educational aspects of the program will be forwarded to the proper authorities if directed to: