Using Video for Good and Only a Little Evil
Using Videos to Briefly Entertain (Evil?)
I occasionally let my five-month old watch The Electric Company, an
educational show produced for PBS. The first iteration started in 1971 and included people like Bill Cosby and Morgan Freeman. It was later revived, and recent seasons focus on a group of young people with powers like superheroes, rearranging letters and the like.
Subscribers of Amazon Prime can watch the first couple seasons of the new iteration online via free streaming. The original seasons are also available.
When I need a few minutes, I will let my daughter watch a few minutes of this show. I tried Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, too, but Gwen was much more interested in The Electric Company. I think the bright colors, lots of action, and songs were appealing at this age. I doubt she’s really learning much right now, but it is educational programming at least.
I’ve only let my daughter watch a couple short segments of Sesame Street so far, and while it’s difficult to gauge her reaction from that small a sample size, I don’t think she’s as engaged in it. When she has a better grasp of language, she might enjoy it more; Sesame Street relies very heavily on being able to understand what the characters are talking about while The Electric Company has more visual stimuli with the letters and words that appear frequently and prominently on the screen. I’ll see what she thinks of Sesame Street later, after she’s seen a bit more.
I do really like it’s almost entirely people talking in The Electric Company whereas Sesame Street includes puppets as well as real people. Seeing real people lets my daughter see the way the mouth moves to produce the words coming out, and being able to watch how sounds are produced is why I’ve chosen these more advanced shows over shows that might be more targeted at younger audiences but rely on puppets or animation.
I do really like the snippets of Sesame Street that I’ve seen so far that show children engaged in various normal activities, like washing a horse, making a basket, etc. Having been focused so much on trying to make sure that my daughter is exposed to books and reading has created a bit of tunnel vision, and it’s nice to be reminded that there are many other things, like these activities, that are important for her to be exposed to, even if it’s just seeing them in a video. So, maybe Sesame Street has been more useful for me than for her at this point.
I felt guilty the first few times that I let my daughter watch these videos. I needed some time to clean up, and there wasn’t a great way for me to have her with me in the bathroom while I did so, so setting her up with a tablet showing part of an episode of The Electric Company entertained her long enough for me to take care of what I needed to. I looked at it this way: I could either leave her alone in her crib staring at the wall, or I could give her something that might actually help provide mental stimulation. I don’t want her to be addicted to videos, but at least in this case, it seemed to be the better option.
Since I’ve found that my daughter likes The Electric Company every once in a while for short periods, I’ve found out more about the show’s origin. It was intended to help educate students, and one year’s viewing of it seemed to really benefit a lot of students. Benefits after this were not as great or clear, but one thing that does seem to be clear is that educational videos do have their place in education. They should not be expected to teach everything, but they can be beneficial depending on the viewer’s needs and the content. I try to read a bit every day with my daughter, so I’m not depending on the show to be the only thing helping her learn to read.
Side note: The website for The Electric Company has some great tips for watching episodes with your children. I look forward to this kind of engagement when Gwen’s old enough for deeper comprehension.
Using Videos to Learn Spanish (Definitely Good)
I do rely on videos to help supplements my daughter’s education in one way that I cannot assist with directly. I do not speak Spanish, and I would like my daughter to be exposed to it and hopefully learn to speak it herself. I’m grateful on the days that I can speak English, but maybe I, too, can learn a bit of Spanish over time. Right now, though, I cannot speak Spanish to her and expect her to learn it. People I know speak it fluently though, so they’re able to speak it around my daughter so that she can even just hear it. I want my daughter to hear Spanish more than just every so often, though, so I found a site with links to videos in Spanish. I let her watch even a few minutes of the videos that are for children or are in the “educational” category, and I think that this is a good way to increase the exposure to the language. Taking her to bilingual and Spanish storytime every other week at the library also helps, but these videos let her hear it more often, spoken more quickly, and in ways more akin to natural speech patterns.
Sources and Further Reading:
- Ball, Samuel, et al. “Reading With Television: A Follow-Up Evaluation Of The Electric Company.” (1974): ERIC. Web. 9 July 2014.
- Cooney, Joan Ganz, and New York, NY. Children’s Television Workshop. “The Electric Company; Television And Reading, 1971–1980: A Mid-Experiment Appraisal.” (1976): ERIC. Web. 9 July 2014.
- Linebarger, Deborah L. “Teaching With Television.” Phi Delta Kappan 93.3 (2011): 62. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 9 July 2014.
- Peyser, Marc. “An Electric New ‘Company’.” Newsweek 153.3 (2009): 10. Business Source Complete. Web. 9 July 2014.
