Lowell Lecturers Evaluate Education on Television

The University's two Lowell Television Lecturers praised the value of television as a teaching instrument yesterday, but agreed that it is no replacement for the ordinary give-and-take lecture method.

Looking back over two and half months of his televised "Psychology One" course, Edwin G. Boring, professor of Psychology, felt that the chief value of TV lies in its ability to give close-up views of small objects. "We even showed a pupillary reflex last week," Boring said. "Half the screen was filled up with an eye, and you could see the pupil expanding and contracting under the influence of light."

Boring Misses Audience

But Boring felt that TV lecturing is less effective than ordinary teaching, since the lecturer is deprived of audience reactions. "I have always felt that audience comeback aids a lecturer," Boring said. "It always helps to know whether your students are awake or asleep, whether they are scribbling notes furiously, or reading the newspaper. But I pretend that the three red lights on the TV camera are Johnny and Mama and Papa, and I try to deliver my lecture to them."

Zechariah Chafee, Jr., University Professor Emeritus, agreed that TV is valuable for close-up demonstrations. Chafee, who gives a course on "Human Rights and the Constitution," also agreed that the lack of audience contact is a defect. "I never gave a straight lecture at the College," he explained. "I always let the students ask questions. But on TV I can never be sure I've gotten my point across, and I lack the benefit of class opinion."

The chief problem noted by both lecturers in adapting their courses to television were the need to condense lectures in 271/2 minutes of show time and the long hours which have to be spent in preparing a TV lecture. Boring estimated that it takes about 60 man hours per week to prepare his half-hour show, 15 of which he puts in personally. Chafee noted that it is much harder work to prepare a TV lecture than an ordinary one, chiefly because a lecturer must be more careful about his phraseology when he can't see the reactions of his listeners.

TV Teaching Has Place

Both Boring and Chafee agreed that televised teaching has a place, however. "I am not yet converted to television for systematic teaching," Chafee said. "But for this sort of thing, where you reach people who wouldn't come to college, and who may be too far away to come and hear a public lecture, television is excellent."

Boring also felt that television is valuable in teaching these people. "I'm convinced that a friendly, enthusiastic, excited discussion of a point will carry across to the TV audience. I can't prove this, but I'm pretty certain of it."

The television station, through an inexact method, has determined that over 10,000 persons view each of Boring's lectures.