A Learning Experience Via Short Wave Radio

By Ralph G. Hawkins

S h ounds of Big Ben, a bird call or }even a melodious tune can be

heard on this day at a Midwestern university by students enrolled in a select ion and ut i l izat ion media course for teachers. They are hear- ing old sounds in a new way. A lesson on the use of the short-wave radio is being taught to the students in this class and for the past 15 years students of the class have listened to sounds from far-away places. Nine- ty-nine percent of the students in the classes have listened to the short- wave radio sounds for the first time and determined how they could use the short-wave radio in their teach- ing area.

Alice or her class members hadn't heard Big Ben from London with its deep rich tone striking on the hour as an introduction to a BBC broadcast. The experience of listening to the short-wave radio excites many of the students to utilize this type of media. John asked, "How can I use this tool in my political science class?" A good question with a relatively easy answer. Listen to the different sta- tions, determine the frequencies, or use a short-wave guide book which list the frequencies. Document the time, day and frequency and deter- mine the time to record the political program. If there is doubt about the copyright law, write the foreign sta- tion and get permission to record the program.

Each foreign station announcer re- ports their interpretation of the news, which allows the student and teacher to compare and contrast the news reported in the foreign broad- cast. A station from the United States can be indentified by the theme tune o f "Yankee Doodle Dan- dy" , or South Africa by a bird call. Each station has its own unique

Ralph G. Hawkins is an associate professor in the Elementary and Se- cendary Education Department at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri.

sound. Radio Moscow uses a tune that catches your attention and re- peats the sound so you can find the frequency to hear their opinion of world events.

Student teachers in the music area have an opportunity to listen to the variety of music from the many for- eign stations and record the autho- rized programs for their class or lis- tening pleasure. Foreign language student teachers find the native lan- guages helpful while studying and listening to foreign station program- ming.

Of course there are students who enjoy just listening to the variety of information available on the short- wave radio. Amateur radio and Citi- zen Band radios can be heard in the short-wave band on their assigned frequencies. Shortwave listeners have heard distress calls at sea and other remote places and have called the proper agency such as the Coast Guard--action that has saved the lives of the persons in distress. WWV, a time station located in Fort Collins, Colorado broadcasts the Universal Coordinated Time on 5, 10, 15, 20 megahertz, With this ser- vice the user can determine the ex- act time and the exact frequency on the radio.

There are several frequencies that foreign stations use in the different short-wave bands. You can tune up and down the bands from 3 mega- hertz to 30 megahertz and normally find stations. Usually you can find more stations in the 5 to 11 mega- hertz frequency range. Radio signals vary with the different times of the day and weather conditions. You will be able to locate additional sta- tions from 12 to 18 megahertz range.

Sounds of the short-wave radio are heard in the classrooms in the Ozarks because this medium adds another dimension to the learning process which motivates the stu- dents to listen to their far-away neighbors and the world events that affect their lives. �9

Reading worfh writing for.

If you ' r e looking for some good reading , y o u ' v e just found it, The free Consumer Information Catalog,

The Cata log lists about 200 federal publicat ions, m a n y of t h e m free. They c a n he lp you eat right, m a n a g e your m o n e y , stay healthy, p l a n your child's educat ion , learn about federal benefits a n d more.

So sharpen your pencil. Write for the free Consumer Information Catalog. And get reading worth writing for.

Consumer Information Center Department RW Pueblo, Colorado 81009

A public service of this publication and the Consumer Information Center of the U.S. General Services Administration.

MARCH/APRIL 5

WCCE/90 F I F T H W O R L D C O N F E R E N C E O N C O M P U T E R S IN E D U C A T I O N

Conference Notice and Call for Papers

T he Fifth World Conference in Computer Education (WCCE/

90), organized under the auspices of the International Federation for In- formation Processing (IFIP), will be held in Sydney, Australia, July 9-13, 1990. WCCE/90 will be a conference for all aspects of computer-related education in all education environ- ments.

Draft papers will be required by October 1, 1989. For further infor- mation, you may contact the U.S. representative, Ms. Holly Jobe, IMS, MCIU, Montgomery Avenue and Paper Mill Road, Erdenheim, PA 19118. Telephone (215) 233-9560; C O M P U S E R V E 70014, 456; SOURCE RD0076.

Use Cable TV in the Classroom and be a Winner

A ction for Children's Television (ACT) has joined together with

the A&E Cable Newwork (A&E) to c o s p o n s o r the S e c o n d Annual Teacher Grant Competition, which encourages high school and junior high school teachers to use televi- sion as an educational tool in the classroom.

Three grants of $2,000, $1,500 and $1,000 will again be awarded to the top three projects involving A&E programs submitted by public and private school teachers in grades 7 through 12. In addition, a $1,500 U.S. Savings Bond will be awarded to the first-place winner, a $1,000 bond will go to the second-place winner and the third-place winner will receive a bond worth $500. Judging will be conducted by a spe- cial independent panel drawn from the national education community.

To enter the competition, teachers

6 Tech Trends

may select any program airing be- tween September 1, 1988 and May 31, 1989. Applications and a list of programs may be obtained by writ- ing to: Manager of Community De- velopment, A&E Cable Network, 555 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10017.

PSSC Call for Nominations

T he Public Service Satellite Con- sortium (PSSC) is currently ac-

cepting nominations for the second annual H. Rex Lee Award for Excel- lence in Public Service Telecommu- nications. The award, which carries with it a $1,000 cash prize, is intend- ed for the design or development of systems or applications in the public service rather than for media pro- duction.

Last year's award went to Dr. Joseph Pelton of INTELSAT for his leadership role in Project SHARE (Satellites for Health and Rural Edu- cation).

The deadline for nominations is June 1, 1989 and the winner will be announced in the Fall at PSSC's Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. Interested parties should submit nominations of 500 words or less to: Karen Hutcheson, PSSC, 600 Mary- land Avenue, SW, Suite 220, Wash- ington, DC 20024.

Standards for VDT Workstations

E nhancing the comfort and effi- ciency of people who use visual

display terminal workstations is the purpose of a recently published American National Standard devel- oped by members of the Human Factors Society (HFS).

Provided in ANSI/HFS 100-1988 are requirements for VDTs used for text processing, data entry, and data inquiry; the furniture associated with them; and the environment in which they are placed. Techniques for measuring compliance with the standard's specifications are given.

Design requirements are provided for visual displays, keyboards, and workstations. Included in the visual display section are specifications for luminance, contrast between back- ground and characters, use of color, image linearity and stability, charac-

ter height and format, viewing dis- tance, and other characteristics.

The keyboard design section in- cludes recommendations on key- board layout, slope, and stability; key spacing and force; and cursor control.

Enhancing the comfort of seated users performing tasks on a VDT is the goal of the workstation design requirements, which include clear- ances under work surfaces, height of keyboard and display support sur- faces, dimensions of seating, and height of footrests. ANSI/HFS 100- 1988 also provides requirements for office lighting, noise, and tempera- ture.

Copies of American National Standard for Human Factors Engi- neering of Visual Display Termina- tion Workstations, ANSI/HFS 100- 1988, may be purchased for $25 each from the Sales Department of ANSI, 1430 Broadway, New York, NY 10018 or Human Factors Society, Box 1369, Santa Monica, CA 90406. Quantity discounts are available on orders placed with either organiza- tion.

HyperComposer TM Now Available

A ddison-Wesley Publishing Com- pany has released HyperCom-

poser T~ , The Sound and Music Tool- kit for HyperCard, a sound and mu- sic " s t ack" which makes using sound within HyperCard quick and easy, significantly expanding the sound and music capabilities of Hy- perCard's Play command from 256 notes to 11,000.

Designed for HyperCard enthusi- asts at any level, HyperComposer allows users to import and export sounds to create musical composi- tions for use in HyperCard stacks. Creating a library of sounds is now only keystrokes away.

The suggested retail price for Hy- perComposer is $69.95, and the pro- gram is now available wherever soft- ware is sold. HyperComposer runs on the Macintosh Plus, Macintosh SE, and the Macintosh II. The pro- gram requires at least 1 megabyte of RAM and HyperCard Version 1.2.1 or later. Minimum hardware require- ment: Two 800K disk drives or hard disk. Recommended with System 4.2/Finder 5.3 or later versions (not compatible with System 6.0).