Children Media, Lisa Guernsey, What makes educational TV educational?

1. WHAT IS EDUCATIONAL Sloane
Danziger
ABOUT “EDUCATIONAL” TV?

2. EDUCATIONAL TV
 SET UP:
 Programs are set up like a well -run preschool
 Learning based goals
 Art work, craft materials during break, interactive host

3.  Children as young as 2 can take information from shows and
apply it to the world around them.
 Needs to be repetitive
 Have shows inside of shows ex: “Elmo’s world”
 Narrow audience for each show
 Bill Nye- 4 th graders
 Blue’s Clues- 4 years old
 Needs to be comprehensible
 Winnie the Pooh, Veggie Tales, Richard Scary all change scenes and
move around without indication, children do not understand

4. CAPACIT Y MODEL
 How and whether children process the information they view.
 Example: The brain only has so much capacity for taking in
new information. To store and recall what it learns, it needs to
be able to assign that information a meaningful label or
category (Sharing>goes with how grown ups want me to act).
Categorizing takes a backseat to the brains other work,
making it hard to understand what is going on on the show.

5.  To be educational
 Tested with real children
 Tweaked accordingly
 Designed to get viewers to participate as social partners
 Point towards specific goals
 Vetted by children experts
 Slow pace
 After showing research