Television is the audio-visual media of communication. It offers a window to the outside world. Among all the mass media, television attracts the largest number of viewers. It is the most popular and has the greatest potential. This is because it is able to attract the audience of all age groups, literate and illiterate and of all the levels of the society.
Television has been given considerable importance in many countries as a source and a tool of teaching. Television is adaptable and can follow different approaches when used in the different educational situations. The medium is used for formal, non-formal and informal education. To support formal education, television usually function as supportive and reinforcement tool.
Generally television can help to achieve the following objectives:
1. Social quality in education
2. Enhance quality in education
3. Reduce dependency on verbal teaching and teachers
4. Provide flexibility of time and space in learning.
5. Stimulates learning
6. Provide mass education opportunities
Teacher can use Television in the classroom to satisfy a variety of objectives like :
1. To reinforce and expand on content being taught
2. To respond to a variety of learning styles
3. To increase student motivation to learn
4. To stimulate other learning activities.
The impact of television on macro level should be studied in three areas namely;
1. Teacher’s Competencies
2. Student’s Competencies
3. Effects on general viewers
To show practical application of principle already written in the textbooks and to show the laboratory work and demonstrations. To humanize distance education and to improve language skills and teaching skills by showing model teaching techniques. To show real life situation and microscope things on magnified scale. Animations, dramatic presentations, slow motions and case studies.
1. Instructing
2. Explaining ,Clarifying
3. Summarizing
4. Reinforcement
5. Imposing study speed
6. Supporting and enhancing teaching
7. Motivation and encouragement
8. Using as supplementary for the other materials
9. Presenting a reference to large masses
10.Presenting unreachable facts and events
Education + Entertainment = Edutainment