The Winnipeg Center Project: Teacher education for inner-city people

Education in the inner city is complicated by a series of unique problems. These problems have been recognized but little has been done by teacher educators to prepare teachers to cope with them. The Winnipeg Center Project represents an attempt to prepare individuals, drawn from the inner city, to become teachers who are specially prepared to cope with these problems.

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Résumé Une suite de problèmes particuliers complique l'enseignement dans les centre-villes. Ces problèmes ont été reconnus mais les responsables de la formation des maîtres ont peu fait pour préparer les professeurs à y faire face. Le Winnipeg Center Project est une expérience destinée à préparer des individus provenant des centre-villes à devenir des professeurs formés spécialement en vue de faire face à ces problèmes.

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For further information, the author can be contacted c/o Aberdeen School, 450 Flora Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2W 2R7.     

Media comparison and deployment: a practitioner's view

Research on comparative efficacy of media has been flawed, giving a false impression of equipotentiality between media. Consequently, the need for workable criteria for optimal media deployment has been underestimated. A framework is proposed to help course developers design such media selection procedures. This has two ingredients: a broad categorisation of comparative merits of different media and a finer-grained inventory of media-distinctive techniques and teaching functions.
Five media are considered in depth: radio and TV (broadcast), audio and video (cassette, with complementary notes) and print. These are then compared briefly with computer-based media. The analysis considers six types of media characteristics: symbol system, access, controllability, student reactivity, interactivity, adaptivity. The framework was developed collaboratively over several years, with the help of theorists and practitioners in international seminars and workshops.