Instructional Television (ITV)

Television programs that are used in the school classroom are collectively referred to as "Instructional Television."

The program may be utilized as a supplement to, or as a part of, the core of the lesson or teaching plan.

The program(s) may originate from any of several sources, including a video player in the classroom, closed circuit distribution (CCTV), from cable (CATV) or broadcast facilities (Off-Air).

Motion picture films were once the mainstay of media resource centers in schools. You could obtain films for just about any subject. My job included setting up up the projector and requested film before a class started. I would run part of the film to adjust the focus and check the sound, then switch to ‘Reverse Play’ to go back to the beginning of the film. Of course the picture movement was backward, and so was the sound. It sounded something like, “ weep dwroop vfoo scrahees det”, making no sense at all. One day I noticed a student watching, seemingly fascinated by the reverse process, as I made my check on a film about Japan. Jokingly I said, “ Isn’t that interesting? You play it foreword, it’s English but play it backward, and it’s Japanese.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “That’s pretty cool!”
Total acceptance!
I wish people were as quick to believe the true facts rather than myth, fable and rumor.
Phonograph records were also the subject of myth and fable. Numerous records were purported to have messages recorded backwards in them. You could hear incantations, dirty words and the like, if you played them backwards. ‘Backwards’ was not easy to do on a regular record player, but a professional turntable like we just happened to have in the TV Center would work. We had a steady stream of ‘believers’ wanting to check it out. Even the theme song to “Mr. Ed”, the program about a talking horse, was supposed to have something. They seldom came up with anything that sounded remotely like the rumored message.
For the most part, it was silly, good fun; we were willing to oblige them in their searches.

The "Baby Boom" years hit the entire United States school system with the largest number of students in its history. The trickle began with those born after the War (WWII) in 1946, and swelled to flood proportions by the late 1950's. Institutions of Learning scrambled to accommodate the influx of students.
New technologies for teaching were eagerly explored, as well as constructing new buildings. The rapidly developing television industry was championed by many educators as a means of reaching, and teaching, many students simultaneously, utilizing the few teachers that were available.
Newark, Ohio,was one of the communities that moved toward television technology in the 1950's. The new campus style high school,dedicated in 1963, was wired for closed circuit television (CCTV) and distribution of off-air television. The intention was to utilize the new non-commercial Educational Television stations then under construction. The Ohio State University, in Columbus, OH, had a station broadcasting by the late 1950's. A consortium of educators and institutions developed a service to distribute Instructional Television programs by means of high-flying aircraft, carrying
special television equipment. The Midwest Program for Airbourne Television Instruction (MPATI) operated for several years, flying over Montpelier, IN. The New Newark High School was equipped to receive and distribute these programs.
There were two major drawbacks with this system at Newark: The selection and scheduling of MPATI programs did not fit well in the high school curriculum or classroom schedule; and, not enough television receivers were available to service the many classrooms.
Accordingly, a pilot project was set up at one of the elementary schools, Hazelwood School, on the far east side of Newark. This was utilized for many years.
The Columbus City Schools developed their own Instructional Television curriculum, and broadcast those programs on the Ohio State University station, WOSU-TV, Channel 34, in Columbus. Most of the schools in Newark were not able to receive an acceptable signal directly from WOSU-TV, however.
The Media or "Audio-Visual Department" had been working toward on these challenges in the late 1950's. A community group was able to come up with a plan to build an Educational TV Station in Newark. The low-powered station was on a high hill, positioned to easily receive the signal from WOSU-TV and rebroadcast it to the entire Newark Community. WGSF Television began regular broadcasting on March 18, 1963. No Instructional/Educational programs were aired at that time, however. Only a week-day, evening schedule was possible, mainly from the National Educational Television service (NET).
By the following year, summer of 1964, a consortium of local Ohio school districts, including Newark and Columbus, worked out a plan to distribute ITV programs via WOSU-TV, which included both copyright and other ownership and clearance issues, and a cost-sharing program through membership in the Central Ohio ETV Foundation (COETV).
Several other Ohio communities developed similar arrangements, utilizing University ETV stations.
WGSF Television added personnel in the summer of 1964, and began broadcasting COETV programs in September, 1964, as well as the evening NET "Public" programs.