Computers, satellites, telephone networks and VCRs have changed the face of instruction in a few short years. It is possible to teach a class and never meet your students in person, never see their faces, and never even be in the same country. Many of us, however, are still working with the "tried and true" chalkboard, the more recent version known as the overhead projector, an occasional bout with a 16mm film projector and, thankfully, a VCR and television for a little variety.
In as much as chalkboards, overheads, VCRs and audio-tapes are the most commonly used audio-visual materials in classroom instruction, a few timely hints on their use are probably in order. Standing in front of your first class is no time to have to learn how to run the equipment!
When using the chalkboard and the overhead, it is important for you to consider the physical limitations of your classroom. How big is it? How far away are the back seats? How large do you need to write in order for those in back to easily see what is on the board? When inspecting your classroom, make sure you have some chalk with you, and experiment. Write on the board/overhead and walk to the back of the room, sit in a desk, and read the board or screen.
Bored with plain old standard white chalk and black felt-tip pens? Try some colored chalks/pens. Colors can be used for emphasis and separation of different points or issues.
Try writing out what you want to emphasize in your next class. Can you pre-write an outline of the day's activities or lecture before class begins? How much chalkboard area do you have to work with? Do you want your students to keep the overall picture for the day in view, or do you prefer to use the board as a big scratch pad?
Overheads that are copies of regularly typed hand-outs are often typed in 10- or 12-characters per inch (Pica or Elite) are singularly difficult to read, and are terrible distractions for students who are madly copying the overhead instead of listening, particularly in a large lecture hall. Do yourself a favor, and make sure that you use large, dark lettering on your transparencies
VCRs and film/slide projectors
Advance planning is absolutely necessary with any equipment that you plan to use in your classroom. Consider the following points when contemplating the use of A/V equipment:
Known to school-aged children as "show-and-tell", well-selected exhibits are an effective source of instructional material. One of my favorite exhibits was staged by Rear Admiral Grace Hopper as she was trying to explain, visually, how much faster computers are today than in the 1940s. She held up a 12-inch length of wire and explained, "This is how fast computers were in 1940, or how much we could do in one second." She held up a somewhat larger bundle of wire, about one inch in diameter, and said, "This represents how many operations a computer can do in a milli-second." She leaned behind the podium and hefted a three-foot round of cable and stated, "We are NOW talking in NANO-seconds, - and that's FAST, people!"
Deciding what exhibits to bring to your class and where and how to display them, setting up and taking down, and transporting exhibits are all time-consuming and labor-intensive. Unless your department is really rich or you are really lucky, you will probably be doing all of this by yourself. That makes exhibits fairly prohibitive in terms of regular classroom use. Once in a while, however, there is just no substitute for allowing your students to "see it with their own eyes".
Most of all, you need to consider: