Week 7 China

China favours the use of television to educate its students because of the countries large population. As many skilled workers are needed throughout the country, the television is a convenient way to educate large numbers of students on specialist subjects throughout the country. Between 1960- 1966 8,000 students graduated by using the television based learning and 50,000 students passed single courses. Television and the advancement in technology allow messages to reach a large audience and educate more people than what a single lecturer could. This shows the idea of social-determinism, with society functioning in a way that reflects the technological advancements that we have. A television has the ability to send large messages to a mass audience and the idea of the TVUs reflect this. However, the idea of learning subjects via a television screen raises questions with me about the quality of the learning the students will receive. The sense of regimented learning questions the flexibility of subjects what with hundreds of students all being taught the same issues and subjects, this moves the students away from the ability to speak freely about subjects, find their own interests and choose what part of a subject they want to look into. There is no flexibility with their learning compared to a normal university. The audience are only seen as a mass audience, rather than individual students with different interests, restricting their quality of learning. Also with many of the courses having practical elements such as Chemistry, Physics and Mechanics can television learning constitute the learning of that IRL? Where practical projects need to be done would the students be able to clearly follow the instructions from a television, or would they benefit more from having teachings IRL? This type of advancement in technology does show how it helps society develop, with more people in China being able to become qualified, but in my opinion it is restricting the ‘freedom’ that technology is allowing. This technology is talking to the audience as if they are a ‘mass audience’ rather than the advancements allowing each individual to take what they want from the medium.