Radio has played a vital role in education since the 1930s. It can extend the classroom by bringing worldwide experiences to students through narration and sounds. Radio benefits education by widening students' knowledge, transporting listeners through time and place, informing students of current events, developing values and imagination, and aiding visually impaired and slow learners. While it lacks interactivity and visuals, radio remains an effective educational tool due to its wide reach, low cost, and ability to supplement classroom learning. Major educational radio projects in India include school broadcasts, adult education programs, language learning initiatives, university broadcasts, IGNOU collaborations, and Gyan Vani educational content contributions.

1. Radio in Education
EDU 03:Educational Technology and
Communication in Education

2. Categories of Mass Media
 Print Media : The oldest form of media. It include any
type of printed material such as book, newspapers,
magazines, journals and newsletters.
 Electronic media : Information made entertaining possible
through television, radio, movies and more.
 Digital Media : Fast and efficient form of mass media. It
encompasses all type of social media such as blogs,
forums, web portals etc.

3. Importance of Radio in
Educative Process
 Radio has been playing a vital role in the
field of communication since its origin.
 1930s marked the use of radio in educative process.
 After the growth of the print, as an instrument for the
dissemination of idea, message, information and
knowledge, the spoken word appeared with fresh
tonal values as the vehicle of communication.
 Radio amalgamates sound and it has got
immense potentiality. It has the power to stimulate
values, to stir imagination and to increase knowledge
and understanding.

4. Role of Radio in Education
 Radio extends the area of acquaintance: The child gains
knowledge only when he/she interacts with the surroundings.
Radio widens the area of acquaintance.
 Radio brings world into the classroom through the means of
description, narration, dramatization and so on with the help of
original voice and natural sounds.
 “Radio has the ability to transport listeners around the world,
backward or forward in time’’- Forsythe.
 It brings the people of rare contribution: It helps the learners to
get familiar with the eminent personalities who has given
immense contribution to the society.
 Normally, it is not possible from part of the students to hear the
voice of such people. It may be a great experience to the
students.

5.  It places events of current nature: National and
international events are portrayed to the pupil. This
help the pupil to update their information regarding
national and international events.
 Radio carries fresh information earlier than the same is
found in the newspapers or magazines.
 It helps in inculcating values: Radio works with only
voice and sound, it helps the students to improve their
creativity and imagination.
 It helps the slow learners and the pupils having poor
sight: The pupil listen to the teachers in classroom and
they supplement the learning, by going through books.
 Radio broadcasting is a boon for the learners who have
defective eye sight and those who are slow in learning.

6.  It refreshes the knowledge of teachers: A broadcast
programmes carries more content than what is found in the
text books.
 Various subject areas come into the fold of content. This
helps the teacher to refresh his/her content knowledge in
any subject/particular subject.
 Well suited for subjects such as language and music: Radio
is suited for teaching music and arts. For Shukla ‘ radio
specifically can provide opportunities for developing
listening comprehension as well as improvement of
vocabulary, pronunciation and formalities of speech’.

7. What makes radio popular.
 Wide Coverage: Radio covers wide geographical area. Even schools in
remote places can access the broadcast. It can extend education to a
greater student population at one time.
 Cheap medium and low maintenance: In comparison with other
technologies, radio is regarded as the cheapest medium now a days.
Even the schools with rural setting or minimal setting can have a radio
with difficulty.
 Another plus point in favour of radio is that it can be repaired easily and
the spare parts do not cost much more. Maintenance of radio is easily
available within an institutional radius.
 In absence of power supply, radio can be operated in battery.
 Infrastructure and experience: Radio has got the well developed
infrastructure for production of programmes as well as transmission of
it. Authorised personnel and their experience is sought in this regard.

8. Utilisation of Educational Radio
Programmes
 Radio concerns with one sense organ i.e. ear.
 Educational broadcast help the students to develop their
mental ability.
 The canvas of imagination is so vast that the listener can
paint it with variety, life and colour.
 For the effective use of radio programmes, some of the
criteria are needed to be fulfilled; such as physical
condition for broadcast, organisation of the class,
preparing students for the broadcast, listening activity,
post listening activity and follow up activity.

9. Stages
1)Physical Condition
for Broadcast
 Physical Conditions.
 Good lighting.
 Advantages of
ventilation.
 Free from outside
noise.
 Seating arrangement.
2)Organisation of the
class.
 The teacher is
required to test the
functionality of the
radio set and other
speakers before it is
utilised in the class.
 Should be audible to
all.

10. 3)Listening Activity
 Teacher is a co learner.
 Pin drop silence should be
maintained.
 Teacher should supplement the
broadcast topic.
 Reaction from the part of
students is given more
importance.
 A review is submitted by the
teacher, to the concerned
programme maker.
4)Post listening Activity
 Megaphoning the doubts.
 Teacher should ask questions
from the broadcast topic.
 Teacher should lead the
students into a discussion,
where they question each other
and the teacher itself.
 If there is any deficiency in
broadcast programme, the
teacher should supplement it.

11. 5) Follow Up Activity.
 Last stage of broadcast.
 Teacher may motivate the students for further data collection in this regard.
 Follow up activities are given to the students such as assignments, writing
poems and dialogue etc.
 A log book is maintained by the teacher, which helps him/her in giving
feedback regularly.

12. Does Radio serves its purpose??
Pros
 Wide Reception
 Economical.
 Reasonably Cheap.
 Convenient.
 Easily Transportable.
 Can be used as complete teaching
course, can be integrated into face
to face teaching.
 Used in conjunction with distance
education.
Cons
 Impersonal and monotonous.
 No spontaneous feedback.
 Provide no visual help which in
turn generates limitation on the
variety of subjects taught.
 Initial reluctance from the part of
the tutor.
 Outside interruption.

13. Indian Beginning
 June 1923 marked the first radio broadcast in India. It was done on a
experimental basis by tying up with a private company named Indian
Broadcasting Company limited.
 In 1947, AIR was established. Today AIR network has 198 broadcasting centres,
including 74 local radio stations.
 2000 programme hours everyday in 24 language and 146 dialects.
 AIR covers 98 percentage of the population.

14. Major Educational Radio Projects in
India
1)School Broadcast Project
 1937
 Focused upon school students.
 Delhi, Calcutta, Madras and
Bombay.
 There was no strict curriculum in
the beginning.
 AIR tried to make its radio
broadcasts more curriculum
oriented, but it failed due to the
lack of common curriculum.
2)Adult education&
Community Development
Programme
 1956, 144 villages in Poona were its
beneficiaries.
 UNESCO funded this programme
and renamed it as Radio Forums
Project.
 Topics focusing on rural and
agricultural programmes were
aired.

15. 3)Language Learning
Programme
 1979-80
 Initiated jointly by AIR and
Education Government of
Rajasthan.
 Established with an aim to teach
Hindi in Jaipur and Ajmer districts.
 500 primary schools were
inculcated in this programme.
 It became a huge success, and the
project was reinitiated in
Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh.
4)University Broadcast
Project
 1965
 Established with an aim to expand
higher education among different
strata of society.
 General- Included the topics of
public interest.
 Enrichment- Programmes
supported correspondence
education.
 Broadcasted through AIR.
 School of Correspondence studies,
University of Delhi, Central
institute of English and Foreign
languages are known for it.

16. 5)IGNOU- AIR Broadcast.
 In collaboration with IGNOU, AIR
stations of Mumbai, Hyderabad and
Shillong, broadcast were started in
1992.
 Target groups are open and
conventional university students.
 Shillong started this but
discontinued later on.
 Presently broadcasted from AIR
Mumbai and Hyderabad.
6)Gyan Vani
 2001
 Focused on open and conventional
universities.
 It is based on a decentralised
concept of extending mass media
for education and empowerment.
 Programmes are contributed by
IGNOU, NCERT, UGC, IIT etc.
 Women Empowerment, Consumer
rights, Human rights, Science
education are dealt through this.

17. Conclusion
 The popularity, availability and low cost of radio made it convenient and
practical medium for use in programmes in learning at a distance and is
mostly used in combination with other media, such as print medium followed
by face to face teaching.
 Educational programmes or educational broadcast programmes indicate that
radio can be an effective medium in reaching out, quality education and
training to the needy ones.

18. Thank You