Education is an integral part of society. Everyone must get an education and teaching students is not an easy profession and even to get the knowledge is not easy as it sounds. So, teaching aids are necessary today. It promotes students to learn and engages them in learning in various engaging ways. The meaning of teaching aids is a tool that helps to understand both are them. In today’s world, there are many different audio-visual aids available. From early childhood education to the adult learning environment, these tools have become a necessity in classrooms. These tools have helped students learn and retain more information, as well as make it easier for them to focus their attention. Communication has evolved with the growing use of audiovisual technology. And we can also apply these innovations in the classroom environment to improve communication between students and teachers. As stated by Postman in the article the classroom is a place for social interaction. One key to using audiovisual technology effectively is to use it as a teaching tool. For example, teachers can use video to illustrate concepts and audio for verbal explanations or presentations. Teachers can also use an interactive whiteboard that displays images from around the world. With a better understanding of audiovisual technology, teachers can learn how different equipment can play various interactive roles in the classroom, which will enable them to interact more easily with their students.
During my school times, We usually go to computer classes once or twice a week and too just learn computer lessons within a class only blackboards were used for visual learning purposes, and textbooks were to be considered the sole learning tool. However, when I started teaching I realized that an audio-visual aid will serve as an effective method of disseminative knowledge even in an overcrowded classroom. Without this technical device, poorly teacher prepared cannot hold the class properly. If teachers use the help of audio-visual in class such as a projector, which would definitely stimulate imagination and catch the attention of students. Teachers often give instruction heavily loaded abstract verbalisms which seem meaningless sometimes. So in case, teaching should be in a simple and lucid manner. Hence, the use of audiovisual aid in the classroom will lead towards learning with understanding, learning by watching and learning as fun, not as a burden. Teachers should know which things of it are relevant and which are irrelevant, especially how audiovisual aid may contribute to an understanding of the lesson being taught.
Audio Visual Aids in Education
There are some features, which can be used to determine the extent to which audio-visual aids are of great value in a learning process. Their values depend upon the extent to which they assist in achieving the objectives of instructions and may be indicated briefly under the following heads:
Relevancy- The aid must be relevant to the concept which needs to be developed. A very important standard value is the extent to which any aid is directly related to the understanding of the subject matter. A visual aid could be accurate to the best details understandable and interesting and yet be of little value because of its irrelevancy. For example, a teacher is trying to make clear the structure of sodium atoms with the help of a chart. If the teacher uses an accurate and beautiful chart on which there are so many other atomic structures drawn. It will lose much of its teaching value. Because of the presence of irrelevant material on the chart.
Accuracy- It is very important to make the audio-visual aids accurate but it is difficult to make them as accurate as desired. The chart is always missing the third-dimensional attribute and must be viewed from a fixed position. The models overcome both these difficulties but are seldom as accurate in the details as pictures. The accuracy of understanding is often considered to be more important rather than the accuracy of the specimen.
Interest- Its presence makes the learning process very easy and its absence makes it repulsive. Its presence makes the work a privilege and its absence makes it a punishment. It is the main job of the teacher to create interest in the students for learning. Almost all the subjects should be taught with the help of audio-visual materials so many concepts in secondary classes can be made interesting with the help of charts, models, and films. For example atomic structure, molecules, and digestive system, historical events, mathematical figures, geographical maps, and graphs, etc.
Comprehensibility- In selecting and using visual aids we must try to choose those things as aids that relate the new experience with past experience and which are within the comprehension of the students who are to use it. For example, a teacher finds that his class is experiencing considerable difficulty in locating and understanding the relationship between the parts of a circulatory system. The teacher then draws purely a diagrammatic sketch on the blackboard clearly. This clarified the difficulties because it is simple and readily comprehended by the students.
In this way, we understood that audio-visual aid is the best tool for making teaching effective and the best dissemination of knowledge. Audiovisual material can be included tape recorder, radio, movie, projector method, etc. Not to say that it has also some limitations that all schools cannot afford this modern technological device because it is difficult to adopt this approach in government schools where still no adequate teachers, funding, and proper infrastructure of classrooms and water, and toilet facilities. If this audio-visual material is provided to govt. school, it will be an only showpiece because teachers are also not very acquainted with it. Audio-visual material can be afforded by elite schools and also its use can be realized truly.
Thanks
Gunpreesh 🙂
Thank you for sharing your thoughts Gunpreesh. One of the challenges I face with integrating audio visual elements into my lessons is time. Despite the Internet hosting a vast wealth of videos and animations it always seems that I am spending more time searching for ones that fit the criteria you stated (relevant, accurate, easy to understand, and interesting), than actually preparing my lessons. More often than not I would have been better off developing my own tools rather than spending hours combing through search results. The frustrating part is that every once in a while you find exactly what you were looking for, which leads you to the believe that the perfect video is always one hyperlink away. This is why it is so critical that we work with our peers to curate libraries of resources that directly relate to our local curriculum objectives.
Again, thanks for the post!
Thank you for sharing, Gunpreesh! I definitely related to only going to the computer lab once or twice a week during my schooling. And now, they have a Chromebook right at their desk at all times in my classroom. Watching educational videos like Bill Nye was a treat. Now the use of videos is in almost every single one of my lessons throughout the day. I always have the plan posted on the tv in my classroom. Sometimes the videos we choose as teachers aren’t the most engaging, but they hit the outcome we need to. Creating these visuals ourselves would be very time consuming as teachers. So even though it sometimes does not hit all areas perfectly (accurate, engaging and comprehensibile), I am very thankful we have these resources at our finger tips and premade.
Hi gunpreesh
Thanks for sharing your blog post. I totally agree that the use of audio-visual devices enables the students to grasp these concepts quickly and easily. Visual tools stimulate students’ interest and make it easier for teachers to convey subjects. with the help of audiovisual aids the instructor make learning more actual, active, motivating, encouraging, significant, and glowing by helping to clarify, establish, correlate, and co-ordinate exact conceptions, understandings, and appreciations.
thank you for sharing your thoughts on audio-visual technology, i agree with you these tools have made teaching and learning more interesting, which helps the students to learn tough concepts quickly. during my classroom, i tried very few Audio-visual tools as we don’t have the enough resources in our classroom. therefore we were using Models which were made from cardboard, and paper. but now a lot of tools are there, but In India, still majority of schools are there which don’t have the technology in their classroom due to lack of funds.