Use of Instructional Television in Adult Education: A Review of Some Recent Developments.

This paper, concerned with criteria for using instructional television and the ways to use it effectively in specific situations, calls attention to some developments that may not be familiar to adult educators. The author describes an evolving discipline divided on the meaning of "instructional technology" (gadgetry or systems approach?), and reviews the findings of research on instructional television as they apply to adult education. A program in American Samoa and the Open University of the BBC are cited as examples of large instructional design; discussing movements toward instructional designs in the U.S., the author describes and evaluates the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Commission on Instructional Technology, and the National Institute of Education. Programs of the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications receive close attention: satellite, cable, microwave, and wireline networks have been developed in support of health-care delivery, education, and research. The author concludes that "there is no point in trying to do what most instructional television programming for adults has tried to do," and he offers his own guidelines for adopting televised instruction. (AJ)