INTRODUCTION

The word communication has its origin in the Latin word communis meaning common ie., the communicator and the receiver have a common understanding of a thought, idea, message, feeling etc.. Communication is a two way process of sharing thoughts, ideas, opinions, messages and feelings. To make the communication effective the sender chooses the communication like written words, spoken words, visual symbols etc to transmit his message. The media chosen for communicating in each of these situations would be determined by the teachers decision. Selection and use of media in education is so important to make the communication effective.

SELECTION AND USE OF MEDIA IN EDUCATION

BRIEF HISTORY A Dutch humanist, theologian and Desiderious Erasmus (1466-1536) discouraged memorization as a technique of learning and advocated that children should learn through the aid of picture or other visuals.

John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) prepared a book known as Orbis Sensulium Pictus (The world of sense objects) which contains about 150 pictures on aspects of everyday life. The book is considered to be the first illustrated textbook for childhood education. This book gained wide publicity and was used in childhood education centers all over the world.

Jean Jacus Rosseau (1712-1778) and other educators stressed the need of pictures and other play materials. Rousseau condemned the use of words by teachers and he stressed things. He pleaded that the teaching process must be directed to the learners natural curiosity.

Petalozzi (1756-1827) put Rousseaus theory into action in his object method. He based instruction on sense perception.

The term visual education was used as early as 1926 by Nelson I Green. Eric Ashby (1967) identified four revolutions in education: Evolution from home to school, written words as tool of education, invention 0f printing and use of books and lastly the fourth revolution in the use of electronic media, i.e., radio, television, tape recorder and computer in education

INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA

Media
Media is the plural of medium, which in learning and training environments, is the means of communicating and transferring a learning concept or objective to another individual. Media are the replicable means, forms, or vehicles by which instruction is formatted, stored, and delivered to the learner (Schwen, 1977). Instructional media encompasses all the materials and physical means as instructor might use to implement instruction and facilitate students achievement of instructional objectives. This may include traditional materials such as chalk boards, hand outs, charts, slides, overheads, real objects and video tape of film as well newer materials and methods such as computer, DVD s, the internet and interactive video conferencing. FUNCTIONS OF EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATION MEDIA The audio visual medium chosen for communicating, then in each situations would be determined by teachers decision. However there are some general functions which may be delineated for the use if audio visual media in communication in teaching and learning. To provide a basis for effective perceptual and conceptual learning Learning includes modification of behavior through experience. This means that new things are interpreted in terms of past experience. Naturally interpretation can be carried only to the limit of the meaning or the concepts attained in past experience. Since imagery helps to preserve and to clarify past experience it plays an important part in the meaningfulness of new experience. Therefore it is important that the student acquire clear, accurate and vivid images during the process of learning. For example a nursing student may learn that a scalpel is a knife used in surgery but that piece of knowledge as a bare fact, stripped of its imagery, is of little value to the student of nursing. In the absence of a real scalpel, the teacher might associate the term with past experience by describing the scalpel as a small knife. To increase and sustain attention and concentration and the personal involvement of the student in activity learning

Audio visual materials are important as a means of arousing interest and securing attention, thereby motivating the student. This is obviously the result of the fact that it is the use of the fact that it is easier to understand any given concept through the use of sensory aids as compared with pure verbal description. For example use of a life size model to explain the functions of the heart is far more verbal description. Most instructional materials also interest and motivate students because they capitalize on the natural feeling that all people have of wanting to experiment or investigate. To provide concreteness, realism and life likeness in the teaching learning situation Pictures and concrete reality must be studied if actual meanings are to be gained. Mere sight of a word will not produce meaning. Imagery must be connected with the word. If the student does not have sufficient personal experience to provide for imagery, she must acquire it by some other means such as audio visual materials. Thus the use of audio visual materials is supplementary to actual experience but both are fundamental to verbal instruction. Therefore it is important that the teacher carefully plan and use audio visual materials so as to provide all the necessary concrete experiences for the student To explicate and increase the meaningfulness of abstract concepts Concrete experience helps to combat the tendency to abstractness. Unless words convey definite meanings they do not stimulate correct thinking. Visual materials such as real objects or models give definite meaning to words and thereby combat verbalism. For example no amount of verbal description can set forth adequately the visual appearance of a resuscitator so that the student can comprehend what it looks like. She must see the resuscitator itself or a picture of it. Otherwise, each student will have a different mental picture, even though each listens to the same description To bring remote events of either space or time into the classroom The new tools of communication can serve as an open window through which the student can view the world and all its phenomena. Furthermore, through these audiovisual media students van have instructions by expert teachers when perhaps their own teachers are not as well qualified To introduce opportunity for situational or field types of learning as contrasted with linear order verbal and written communication

Nurse educators have long used audio visual materials for this particular function by providing for direct student experience in the clinical setting in the hospital, in the home for public health nursing and the like. They also have used audio visual media for observational experience through the use of field trips to provide many different types of experience. For example field trip to a water purification plant

To facilitate and advance the process of applying what is learned to realistic performance and life situations Audio visual media are used for this purpose in a large portion of the nursing curriculum. In fact an opportunity is provided in all of the clinical nursing courses for the students to apply her knowledge and principles as she carries through nursing activities in the actual nursing care of patients, in real life situations. It is here that the student has the chance to test her understanding of nursing principles and to use them as she develops nursing skills

SELECTION OF MEDIA IN EDUCATION

NEED FOR MEDIA SELECTION The media basically is one component of learning systems. As a component the media should be an integral part and must comply with the overall learning process. Most of the common audio visual aids are not self instructional when used without proper selection and preparation, the effective power of such audio visual aids is lost. It is also true that in different situations, certain teaching aids will be more effective than others. Also a combination of variety in teaching aid is the soul of an effective lesson. In many advanced countries schools have their own audio visual resource centers and advisory committees to help teachers select relevant aids for different topic.

PRINCIPLES OF SELECTING MEDIA Regardless of type and attributes, media should be selected to facilitate teaching and learning in a given learning environment. Several principles can be used to guide selection. Media should be selected for the learners level of readiness

As instructional technologies become more complex, students must be oriented to their appropriate use. Faculty should build orientation sessions into each course that is using complex digital media or have available support staff who can assist students on demand Media should be selected for use in an environment that is conductive to learning The environment for learning should be accessible, physically comfortable, and emotionally supportive and should encourage students to be active participants Media should contain information relevant to the learners interest and use Relevance and motivation are closely linked Media should be appropriate for the audience More effective communication occurs when the source and the receiver are similar. To enhance communication, faculty might choose pictorial examples that reflect the composition the intended audience Media should provide learners with opportunities to apply knowledge Media should never stand alone. Application- whether by answering questions, manipulating models, or identifying application in patient care- helps students integrate the content presented Media should be selected to support the learning experience EDGAR DALE CONE OF EXPERIENCE Edgar dale is an internationally renowned pioneer in the utilization of audio visual aids in instruction. Perhaps professor dales most famous concept was called the cone of experience, a graphic depiction of the relationship between how information is presented in instruction and the outcomes for learners. Edgar Dale (1969) has arranged various teaching methods in to a hierarchy of lesser to greater abstraction- from the most concrete experiences to the most abstract experiences in the form of a cone. Concrete experiences are first hand experiences by which the learner has some control over the outcome and incorporates the use of all five senses. Abstract experiences are difficult when not enough previous experience or exposure is there and every level of the cone uses abstract thinking in come way. According to him the learner is able to more profitably apply the more abstract instructional content only after having experienced that on a more concrete level that would give

meaning to the abstract representation of reality. Edgar Dale illustrated this with research when he developed the "Cone of Learning" - which states that after two weeks we remember only 10% of what we read, but we remember 90% of what we do!

Levels of cone of experience Enactive- direct experiences Direct, purposeful Contrived Dramatized

Iconic- pictorial experiences Demonstrations Study trips Exhibits Educational television Motion pictures Recordings, radio, still pictures

Symbolic- highly abstract experiences

Visual symbols Verbal symbols

How Can Instructors Use the Cone of Experience? According to Dales research, the least effective method at the top, involves learning from information presented through verbal symbols, i.e., listening to spoken words. The most effective methods at the bottom, involves direct, purposeful learning experiences, such as hands-on or field experience. Direct purposeful experiences represent reality or the closet things to real, everyday life. The cone charts the average retention rate for various methods of teaching. The further you progress down the cone, the greater the learning and the more information is likely to be retained. It also suggests that when choosing an instructional method it is important to remember that involving students in the process strengthens knowledge retention. It reveals that action-learning techniques result in up to 90% retention. People learn best when they use perceptual learning styles. Perceptual learning styles are sensory based. The more sensory channels possible in interacting with a resource, better the chance that many students can learn from it. According to Dale, instructors should design instructional activities that build upon more real-life experiences. Dales cone of experience is a tool to help instructors make decisions about resources and activities.

MEDIA SELECTION CRITERIA Selecting the media should be based on certain criteria. Though the competence of audio visual aids comes to the teacher through experience, yet the following criteria are to be kept in mind for their selection SUBJECT RELATEDNESS The audio visual aids should be closely related to the lesson topics. These aids should give the feeling of entertainment and amusement alone SUPPLEMENTARY ROLE The audio visual aids must be used to supplement the classroom teaching. The audiovisual aids should be selected in such a way that they assist the class room instructor

 ACCURACY It should be observed that the audio visual aids to be used for a given lesson should be easily accessible and available to teacher VARIETY A large number of audio visual aids should be used for teaching a lesson because of a single aid produces monotony COST EFFECTIVENESS The audiovisual aids should be used frequently and for a large number of students so that it becomes cost effectiveness PREVIEWING For selecting audio visual aids for classroom situation they must be previewed and appraised UTILITY Only those audio visual aids should be selected which are frequently useful for classroom instruction TIME The meaning of time here is how long it takes to make or create the media we choose and how much time is available or we have, enough? Another question is how long does it take to present the media and how long the allocation of time available in the learning process? No point in us choosing good media, but we do not enough time to activate it. Do not let happen, the media we choose time consuming, but when used, providing that we are short of time CONTEXT OF USE Context means the use of conditions and the media strategy will be used. For example whether for individual learning small group, large group or mass? In this case, we will use in the learning process, so that envisaged when and how the use of such media in the context of learning

USE OF MEDIA IN EDUCATION

Commenting on the use of audiovisual aids the KOTHARI COMMISSION 1964-1966 observed that it should indeed bring about an educational revolution in the country. It further stated that the supply of teaching aids to every school was essential for the improvement of the quality of teaching.

IMPORTANT VALUES OF THE PROPER USE OF AV AIDS ANTIDOTE TO THE DISEASE OF VERBAL INSTRUCTION

They help to reduce verbalism. They help in giving clear concepts and thus help to bring accuracy in learning BEST MOTIVATORS

They are the best motivators. The students work with more interest and zeal. They are more attentive CLEAR IMAGES

These images are formed when we see, hear, touch, taste and smell as our experiences are direct, concrete and more or less permanent. Learning through the senses becomes the most natural and consequently the easiest VICARIOUS EXPERIENCE

It is beyond doubt that the first hand experience is the best type of educative experience. But it is neither practicable nor desirable to provide such experience to pupils. There are innumerable such thing to which it is not possible to have direct access. So in all such cases these aids help us VARIETY

Mere chalk and talk do not help. AV aids give variety and provide different tools in the hands of the teacher like models, transparencies

FREEDOM

When AV aids are employed, these are great scope for children to move about talk, laugh and comment upon. Under such an atmosphere the students work and not because the teacher wants them to work OPPORTUNITIES TO HANDLE AND MANIPUALTE

Many AV aids offer opportunities to students to handle and manipulate things RETENTIVITY

AV aids contribute to increased retentivity as they stimulate response of the whole organism to the situation in which learning takes place BASED ON MAXIMS OF TEACHING

The use of AV aids enables the teacher to follow the maxims of teaching like concrete to abstract, known to unknown and learning by doing HELPFUL IN ATTRACTING ATTENTION

Attention is the true factor in any process of teaching and learning. AV aids help the teacher in providing proper environment for capturing as well as sustaining the attention and interest of the students in the classroom work HELPFUL IN FIXING UP NEW LEARNING

What is gained in terms of learning needs to be fixed up in the minds of students? AV aids help in achieving this objective by providing several activities, experiences and stimuli to the learners SAVING OF ENERGY AND TIME

A good deal of energy and time of both the teachers and students can be saved on account of the use of AV aids as most of the concepts and phenomena may be easily clarified, understood and assimilated through their use. REALISM

The use of AV aids provides a touch of reality to the learning situation

VIVIDNESS

AV aids give vividness to the learning situation MEETING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

There are wide individual differences among learners. Some are ear oriented; some can be helped through visual demonstrations, while others learn better by doing ENCOURAGEMENT TO HEALTHY CLASSROOM INTERACTION

AV aids through their wide variety of stimuli, provision of active participation of students and vicarious experiences encourage healthy classroom interaction SPREAD OF EDUCATION ON A MASS SCALE

AV aids like radio and television help in providing opportunities for education to people living in remote areas DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER FACULTIES

Verbalism promotes memorization and helps the development of higher faculties among the students POSITIVE TRANSFER OF LEARNING AND TRAINING

Use of AV aids helps in the learning of other concepts, principles and solving the real problems of life by making possible the appropriate positive transfer of learning and training received in the classroom POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT FOR CREATIVE DISCIPLINE

A balanced, rational and scientific use of AV aids develops motivation, attracts the attention and energy and thus keeps them busy in the classroom work. In this way, the overall classroom environment becomes conductive to creative discipline USING MEDIA Once we have selected appropriate media, they are ready to integrate media into the course or assignments. Using media involves planning, requires preparation, and demands that the faculty member develop skills of showmanship.

Planning for using media The acronym ASSURE can help to plan learning experiences Analyze learners for general characteristics, specific entry competencies ( knowledge, skills, and attitudes about the topic) and learning styles State objectives or learning outcomes as specifically as possible Objectives should be stated behaviorally (what the student will be able to do, the conditions under which the students performance is to take place, and the criteria established for success). Select, modify of design instructional materials Use those materials and follow them up with class discussion, small group activities, or individual projects and reports. Require learner response to help process the knowledge or skills and obtain feedback before formal assessment takes place Evaluate the media used for their impact and effectiveness

Preparing and using media Using media requires careful preparation. Teague etal. (1994) suggest the following five step procedure for faculty and students when they are preparing to use instructional media 1. Preparing yourself Carefully review the instructional materials to be used for content appropriate to the established objectives. If a study guide is provided with the medium, the instructor should identify which related audience preparation or suggested follow up activities might be explored. Sometimes only a portion of the instructional materials should be used, and that portion should be identified. 2. Preparing the environment The environment must often be adjusted for use of the media. Tasks may include rearrangement of seating for optimum viewing, hearing, and accommodation of individuals with mobility challenges; setting up and testing the necessary equipment; and controlling ventilation and available room light

3. Preparing the audience Preparing the audience for instruction is the most crucial step in the entire process of using media. Bring the audience to the point at which at which they are ready to learn. This may be accomplished by presenting a broad overview of the content of the presentation, by pointing out specific content to which the learner is to pay special attention, or by defining unfamiliar vocabulary or visual cues. When learners are well prepared, they are more likely to be active participants and see relevance of the media to the topic being presented 4 Using the media Instructors who have well prepared themselves well are confident that their learners will experience the planned outcomes when the media are used 5 Combining the media with other learning Instructions media are components of planned sequences of learning activities PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE USE OF AV MEDIA The success or the failure of an AV instructional program depends in part on the planning and the administration behind the program. The following basic principles may be used as a guide for the effective use of an AV education program 1) The instructional program should be so organized and administered that the AV materials function as an integral part of the educational program 2) An AV education program should be organized and administered in such a way that the program is centralized and under specialized direction and leadership 3) An AV educational program should be flexible 4) An advisory committee should be appointed to assist in the selection and the co-ordination of AV materials 5) AV materials should be available where they are needed and when they are needed if they are to be utilized effectively as an integral part of curriculum 6) AV materials should be centrally located 7) Provision should be made for helping instructors to acquire skill in the use of AV materials 8) Budget appropriateness should be made regularly for the AV education program 9) Evaluation of the AV education program should be made at regular intervals

STEPS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA Once you conclude that using instructional media will help you achieve your explicit and or implicit goals, it is useful to apply the basic steps in the instructions development process to choose and apply the appropriate media. These basic steps are outlined below (St Cloud university 1997) Review instructional goals, objectives, audience and instructional strategy Determine the best medium for your lesson components Search for review existing media or materials Adapt existing media or materials if necessary If new media or materials need to be developed a) Determine format, script, visuals etc b) Draft materials and media c) Check for clarity and flow of ideas Conduct formative evaluation Implement or apply Evaluate or revise

CONCLUSION
The basic assumption underlying AV aids is that learning-clear understanding- stems from sense experience. The teacher must show as well as tell. AV aids provide significant gains in informational learning, retention and recall, thinking and reasoning activities, interest, imagination, better assimilation and personal growth and development. Proper selection and use of media is important to give stimuli for learning. Media have a potential to support and enhance learning experiences, and the use of media by both nursing faculty and students will help them find ways to build knowledge and to communicate that information

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Heidgerken. E. Loretta, Teaching and learning in school of nursing principles and methods, 3rd ed(2006), konark publishers; New Delhi Basvanthappa.B.T, Nursing education, 1st ed(2003), Jaypee publishers; New Delhi Sankaranarayan.B, Learning and teaching nursing,3rd ed(2009), Brainfill publishers Calicut www.umdnj.edu.com www.articlesbase.com