THE ARTS IN THE REMOTE LEARNING SITUATION

Summary of a paper and demonstration

BRIAN STONE

Reader in Literature, The Open University, Bletchley, England

Three of the conference keynote speakers have defined education as the cultivation of the mind, as if the non-rational approach to experience was not appropriate to the learning situation. But the relevance of the arts to life, the importance, when studying them, of affective experience, and their undoubted popularity with students in spite of their apparently being classified as "non-vocational", require that those who plan or pay for education assent to the view of Read (1943)* that we must educate "those senses upon which consciousness, and ultimately intelligence and judgement of the human individual, are based." If we do not allow and cultivate people's powers of sensation, intuition and feeling as part of the whole process of education, we are educating only a small part of the individual and overvaluing the various powers of intellectualizing. The enemies of a proper approach are: Puritanism, philistinism, utilitarianism; examination systems; the inherited social situation, in which the arts suffer from their apparent connection with an 61itist educational system.

When presenting teaching material in the affective domain, like much arts content, it is hard to establish proper educational processes: to define objectives, devise right teaching methods, assess, discover result by feed- back. When using the media (e.g. television), those who plan the pro- gramme allocations ask such questions as: Is television necessary for the whole course? Is it necessary for particular parts? Can what is proposed be done by other methods? How best can it be done by television?

In the making of programmes, academics have to move away from the lecture concept to discover how best the medium can be used; they must incorporate in their planning the lesson that a twenty-three minute programme in any subject is an artefact of a special kind and must be planned as such with its own special rhythm, pace, variety and approaches to content and objectives: they must make the programme organic to the course, not supplementary.

Here is a summary of programme extracts shown and their objec- tives: (i) "Hamlet.'" (a) Alternative interpretations of one scene.

* Read, H. (1943) Education through Art London: Faber.

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(b) Juxtaposition o f different parts of the play in discussion of a theme.

(ii) Introduction to Music: Animated graphics and sound combined to teach musical notation.

(iii) "Leda and the Swan:" Poetry, pictures and reading performance as a demonstration of critical appreciation.

(iv) Ingres: (a) Teaching the eye how to move over a portrait with critical appreciation.

(b) Moving camera focus, music and voice used to make ironic commentary on a grandiose painting.

(v) Secular Music o f the Renaissance." Demonstration of music with contemporary instruments in a contemporary setting.

(vi) The Development o f Fresco." Working demonstrat ion of how a fresco was composed.

(vii) "The Changeling."" The climax of a play studied, acted with great intensity by famous actors.

THE RESPONSE TO THE OPEN UNIVERSITY: CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY

NAOMI E. McINTOSH

Senior Lecturer in Research Methods and Head of Survey Research Department, The Open University, Bletchley, England.

This paper will concern itself with the response to the Open Univer- sity at three main levels. Firstly it will consider the response of the generai public in Britain to the arrival of this new institution. Secondly, it will consider the response of those people who chose to start studying with the Open University. Th i rd ly , it will consider the response of those students who applied and provisionally registered to start their studies, but decided not to carry on to final registration.

The Open University has been criticised for serving the same popula- tions as existing institutions. Our early researches, published in Tunstall (1973), indicate that this is by no means the case. What it does do is serve some of the same population, in a different way, but it is in addition serving a new population. The pilot experiment in which 250 "qualified" 18 year olds will be admitted in 1974 is clearly an indicator of external pressure and the second part of the experiment - to admit 250 "unquali- fied" 18 year olds - is an even more significant development.

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