Module 3. Extension learning and teaching process
Lesson 12
AUDIO-VISUAL-AIDS
12.1 Introduction
There are a number of audio-visual aids that could be used in our day-to-day life. This unit will focus on selected audio-visual aids that are normally available and accessible to the users. The term audio-visual aid refers to anything that an extension professional uses to help to convey the message when communicating with his clientele. The spoken words are the main communication tools. However, when the extension professional is speaking to a large village meeting or discussing a problem in a field with a group of farmers, its impact and effectiveness can be greatly enhanced by the use of suitable audio-visual aids. Audio-visual aids are instructional devices through which the messages can be heard and seen, simultaneously.
'The best way to peoples' heart is through their stomach, but the best way to their brain is through their eyes and ears'- An old proverb
12.2 Audio-Visual Aids
· An audio aid is an instructional device in which the message can be heard but not seen.
· A visual aid is an instructional or communicating device in which the message can be seen but not heard.
· An audio-visual aid is an instructional device in which message can be heard as well as seen.
Strictly speaking, no teaching method is complete without talk/speech. It must be remembered that audio-visual aids can only supplement the teacher, but cannot supersede & replace/supplant him.
12.3 Dale’s Cone of Experience
Dale’s Cone of Experience is a model that incorporates several theories related to instructional design and learning processes. During the 1960s, Edgar Dale theorized that learners retain more information by what they “do” as opposed to what is “heard”, “read” or “observed”. His research led to the development of the Cone of Experience. Today, this “learning by doing” has become known as “experiential learning” or “action learning”. The cone of experience as modified by Sheal (1989) provides a linkage between learning, activity and participant involvement.
Fig. 12.1 Diagram for Dale’s cone of experience
Fig. 12.2 Cone of experience as modified by Sheal (1989)
Between the two extreme of ‘reading’ and ‘doing the real thing’ are a number of other ways through which people learn. As one moves downwards from the principle of the cone, increased involvement, and learning occur.
12.4 Types of Audio-Visual Aids
12.4.1 Verbal symbols
Designations that bear no physical resemblance to the objects or ideas for which they stand. These are used together with every other material on the “Cone of Experience”.
12.4.2 Visual symbols
Visual symbols involve reproducing real situations, chalkboard and overhead projector (the most widely used media), help students see an idea, event, or process. Examples are flat-makes, chalkboards, sketches, bulletin, boards, flash cards, flannel graphs. Types of such visual symbols could be:
a) Non-projected: (for individual use) e.g. photographs, illustrations.
b) Projected: (for group use) e.g. photographs & illustrations-used in opaque projector, sides, filmstrips.
12.4.3 Recordings, radio
i. Recordings: On disc, tape or wire, as it offers wide scope for recording continuously, use the matter, erase it & re-use the conversations recorded.
ii. Radio: It is a mass medium or mass contact medium. It facilitates dissemination of information to a large and heterogeneous group of clientele.
12.4.4 Motion pictures or films
These are silent pictures or combination of sight and sound.
12.4.5 Exhibitions
Exhibitions are planned display of models, specimen’s, charts, posters etc. presented for public view for information, advertising or entertainment.
12.4.6 Field-trips/Farm & home visits
These are face-to-face types of individual contact methods employed by the extension professionals to interact with the farmer or members of his family on the farm or at his home for specific purpose connected with extension.
12.4.7 Demonstrations
Methods of teaching designed to show by example the practical application of an established fact or group of related facts. In other words, it is a way of showing people the worth of an improved practice, whose success has already been established.
12.4.8 Dramatized experiences
Participating in a reconstructed experience e.g. dramas, puppet shows.
12.4.9 Contrived experience
A contrived experience may be construed as an edited version of reality, which is differing in nature from the original in size or in complexity or in both e.g. models of animals, mock-ups of machinery, objects, specimens.
12.4.10 Direct, purposeful experience
It is the unabridged version of life, itself, with three elements: directness, purposefulness, and responsibility for the outcome e.g. ploughing, cultivation of fodder crop, etc.
The use of audio-visual aids in extension teaching is based on the principle that one must see and try to do, along with hearing, in order to go through all the six steps in the extension teaching learning process.
12.5 Seven R’s of Audio-Visual Aids
· Right aid
· Right place
· Right way
· Right time
· Right people
· Right message
· Right Extension personnel
12.6 Functions of Audio-Visual Aids
· Convey meaning clearly
· Capture attention, arouse and sustain interest
· Enhance the correctness, clarity and effectiveness of the idea and skills being transferred
· Help in learning more, faster, and with thoroughness
· Help in remembering for a longer period
· Reach more people, irrespective of their level of literacy or language
· Save the instructor's time
· Reduce the possibility of misinterpreting concepts
· Clarify the relationship between material objects and concepts
· Supplement the spoken word - the combination of audio and visual stimuli is particularly effective since the two most important senses are involved
· Highlight the main points of the message clearly.
12.7 Limitations of Audio-Visual Aids
· Learners may sometimes form distorted impressions, unless audio-visual aids are supplemented with required explanations
· They may tempt the instructor to narrow down his teaching to only a few big ideas, not giving the complete picture of a subject
· Some instructors acquire the mistaken notion that they have little to do when audio-visual aids are used.
12.8 Important Audio-Visual Aids
Audio-Visual aids are supporting materials & they alone cannot generate learning. They should be considered only a tool that helps to do a job in a better way. Visual aids are of different types. The following are the more commonly used ones in India:
12.8.1 Posters
A good poster creates awareness & interest among the people. It inspires & takes people towards action. It consists of 3 main parts. The first usually announces the purpose or the approach, the second sets out conditions, & the third recommends action. A poster should be bold enough to attract attention of the people, & should communicate only one idea at a time. It should have simple letters which are clear & forceful. The size of a poster should not be less than 50 X 75 cm.
12.8.2 Flannel graphs
Flannel graphs serve as a good teaching aid when a piece of sandpaper is fixed to the back of a picture, a photograph, a letter, etc. They can be made to adhere easily to a piece of thick flannel cloth, fixed on a board. They are used as an aid for group methods like informal talks or lectures.
12.8.3 Flash cards
Flash cards are a set of small compact cards approximately 30 to 45 cm. in size, and are used to bring home an idea, such as the benefits of a smokeless chulha, the rearing of cross breed cows, compost-making and other practices. Pictures on the theme are drawn on these cards in a logical sequence, which are then flashed before the audience. Upon seeing them, the villagers are able to follow a story more easily.
12.8.4 Puppets
Puppets are very popular and especially suitable for village situations. Puppet shows can be effectively organised to gather the rural people. For a puppet show, a short story, brief scenes and quick dialogues are necessary. Such shows can teach a lesson about any specific topic like animal health, literacy, or home-making.
12.8.5 Models
Models create a sense of realisation in a person. Models of new farm equipments, compost pits, sanitation devices and animals are mostly prepared for those people who are not in a position to see them in the actual form. They are used to create interest, promote understanding and influence the people to adopt a certain practice.
12.8.6 Bulletin-boards
A bulletin-board can serve the purpose of making announcements, displaying events of short duration & photographs of local activities. The information should be written in simple language.
12.8.7 Photographs
They are a very simple visual aid. Good photographs show some action & catch the feelings & emotions of the people. They are so arranged that they tell a story. They are displayed on a bulletin-board at a common meeting-place where a large number of people can see them. They should be clear & bold in composition with proper captions. One good picture is perceived as equivalent to 1000 words.
12.8.8 Cultural programmes
Local cultural programmes, such as folk-songs & dramas, are used as an effective medium of communicating the message of development programmes. Dramatization of a theme or story creates a lively interest among the audience. Folk-songs & dances related to the subjects of local interest & importance, when acted on the stage, bring them home more forcefully.
For an effective use of extension teaching methods, it is not enough to know these methods and their techniques. What is more important is the appropriate selection of a method or combination of methods for a particular situation. In fact, when a farmer is exposed to a new idea for several times by different methods or a combination of methods, he is likely to accept it more quickly. Farmers learn about new practices through several stages. These stages are known as:
· Awareness stage - when a person comes to know of a new practice but lacks the complete information.
· Interest stage - when he becomes interested in a new idea & wants to know more about it.
· Evaluation stage- when he mentally applies the new idea to his present situation & evaluates it.
· Trial stage- when he applies the new idea or practice on a small scale in order to determine its utility under his own situation.
· Adoption stage- when he decides to continue the full use of the practice. Thus, it is the cumulative effect on people through exposure to an idea repeatedly that result in action.