CHAPTER 25: If This is Television, Shouldn’t my Intelligence be Insulted?

Those of us who have the responsibility of meeting a class of children up to 200 times a year and teaching them a subject like mathematics need help from time to time. My favorite aid is the videocassette recorder (VCR).

The VCR can free us from complicated technology and from network schedules. Even the manufacturers of VCRs have been surprised by the popularity of the flat box that so many of us store underneath the television set. Two factors that have contributed to this popularity are the convenience and ease of use of the VCR. We can “time-shift” or watch programs at a time convenient to us, not when the networks feel that we should watch them. This is important to a classroom teacher, who can show some or all of a program when it fits into the lesson plan, not necessarily when it is being transmitted. If you have not yet bought a VCR for your home, the total inservice time needed to train the most unmechanical person to insert, play, rewind and eject a tape is about five minutes. In seven minutes, you can find how to fast forward, pause, put a transparency on the screen, trace the picture for later use on an overhead projector and probably come up with several innovative ideas of your own.