Washington County Closed-Circuit Educational Television Project

The person in charge of the project was William M. Brish, who was the Superintendent of Schools for Washington County.{{cite news |last= |first= |title= Editor's Note: Expanding |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/107408198/the-austin-american/ |work= The Austin American |page= 4 |location= Austin, Texas |date= September 4, 1957 |via= Newspapers.com {{open access}} |access-date= August 11, 2022 |archive-date= August 11, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220811203501/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/107408198/the-austin-american/ |url-status= live }} The motivation for the project was that the county school system did not have enough teachers with sufficient training.{{sfn|Saettler|1990|page=368}} Two large institutions, the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Advancement of Education and the Electronic Industries Association, sponsored the project and gave almost $1,500,000 ({{Inflation|US|1,500,000|1961|fmt=eq|r=-6}}) during the course of the project.{{cite journal |doi=10.5594/J09278 |title=Eight Years of Instructional Television in Washington County |journal=Journal of the SMPTE |volume=74 |issue=2 |pages=161–6 |year=1965 |last1=Brish |first1=William M. | url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7262078 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616110403/https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7262078/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=June 16, 2018 }} This included $200,000 per year given by the Fund and the donation of $300,000 worth of equipment from a number of manufacturers via the Association.{{sfn|Kane|1997|p=185}} The project was distinct from other early efforts at educational television that relied upon broadcast stations.

The project had national visibility; The Austin American newspaper in Texas referred to it as a "pioneering" effort. Several reports on the project, during and after its duration, were prepared for the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and presented in that society's journals and at its conferences.

The first year of the project saw eight elementary schools, with some 6,000 students, using the television system.{{sfn|Kane|1997|p=185}} Then during the second year, seven more were added. From its first year in use, Brish considered the project a success; however, he emphasized that it was not a replacement of traditional methods, telling a teachers' conference that "Television is not a teaching process. It does not replace the teacher or the book."

The project that had started in 1956 progressed to provide simultaneous telecasting to some 19,000 elementary students in the 45 county schools by 1962. As described by a member of the Board of Education of Washington County as part of a series on education television published in 1962 by the Bangor Daily News in Maine (where a debate on the merits of educational television was taking place), the television production facilities that the county used were the equal of those possessed by many commercial television stations.{{cite news |last= Harlacher |first= Frank |title= Maryland Education Official Describes His ETV Setup |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/105547108/the-bangor-daily-news/ |work= The Bangor Daily News |pages= 1, 22 |location= Bangor, Maine |date= June 11, 1962 |via= Newspapers.com {{open access}} |access-date= July 15, 2022 |archive-date= July 15, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220715135219/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/105547108/the-bangor-daily-news/ |url-status= live }}

There were about twenty-five school lessons broadcast daily through the private closed-circuit network.{{sfn|Saettler|1990|page=368}} A large variety of subjects were taught over television, from remedial reading and arithmetic to art and music to advanced mathematics, biology, and chemistry.{{sfn|Saettler|1990|page=368}} The teachers who gave the presentations in the television studio were drawn from the full set of classroom teachers in the county, and they coordinated instruction with what would be going on in the classroom.

The initial system served eight elementary schools with 6,000 total students.{{sfn|Kane|1997|p=185}} There were forty-five public schools in Washington County altogether,{{sfn|Kane|1997|p=185}} and by the time the project concluded in 1961, all of them were connected to the closed-circuit system.{{sfn|Saettler|1990|p=425}} The people who ran the technical aspects of the telecasts and operated the television cameras were generally students from local junior colleges.

Use of educational television continued on even after the initial six-year period of the project was concluded. Subsequently, the county changed its way of doing audiovisual education, by switching from a closed-circuit cable system to the use of video tape recordings that would be shown in every participating school.{{sfn|Schramm|1989|page=154}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Kane|first= Joseph Nathan|title= Famous First Facts|url= https://archive.org/details/famousfirstfacts00kane_0/page/184/mode/2up?view=theater|year=1997|publisher= The H.W. Wilson Company|isbn=0-8242-0930-3|location=New York|edition=Fifth}}
• {{cite book|last=Saettler|first=Paul |title=The Evolution of American Educational Technology|url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionofameri0000saet/page/424/mode/2up?view=theater|date= 1990|publisher=Libraries Unlimited|location=Englewood, Colorado|isbn=0-87287-613-6}}
• {{cite encyclopedia|editor-last=Barnouw|editor-first=Erik|encyclopedia= International Encyclopedia of Communications|url=https://archive.org/details/internationalenc01barn/page/154/mode/2up?view=theater |year= 1989 |publisher=Oxford University Press |oclc=632496016 | location=New York | volume=1 | first=Wilbur |last=Schramm |title=Audiovisual Education | pages=153–155}}

• {{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/07/08/archives/maryland-project-school-network-to-test-educational-tv.html | title=Maryland Project: School Network to Test Educational TV | author-first=Jack | author-last=Gould | author-link=Jack Gould | newspaper=The New York Times | date=July 8, 1956 | page=77}}
• {{cite news | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/09/12/84709693.html | title=Maryland Begins TV School Hour | newspaper=The New York Times | date=September 12, 1956 | page=31}}
• {{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/01/27/archives/teaching-over-tv-found-practical-but-survey-of-maryland-test.html | title=Teaching Over TV Found Practical: But Survey of Maryland Test Project Holds Classroom Pedagogues Are Safe | newspaper=The New York Times | date=January 27, 1957 | page=64}}
• {{cite book|last=USGPO|title= Educational Television|url= |year=1958|publisher= United States Government|oclc=968365970 | page=83}}
• {{cite news | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/08/01/119109570.html | title=Ford Foundation Grants $2,355,000 | newspaper=The New York Times | date=August 1, 1960 | page=23}}
• {{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1962/09/16/archives/etv-takes-a-giant-step-wndts-debut-in-new-york-will-bring.html | title=ETV Takes A Giant Step | author-first=Newton N. | author-last=Minow | author-link=Newton N. Minow | magazine=The New York Times Magazine | date=September 16, 1962 | pages=32ff}}

• [https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/170731 Washington County Closed-Circuit Television Project: Statement of William M. Brish before Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, April 24, 1958]
• {{cite book|last=Board of Education|first=Hagerstown (Md.). |title=Washington County Closed-circuit Educational Television Project: Progress Report, March 1959|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112066372753&view=1up&format=plaintext&seq=7&skin=2021|year=1959|publisher=Board of Education|oclc= 5704547}}
• {{cite web |url= http://i4weather.net/report.htm |title= WASHINGTON COUNTY CLOSED CIRCUIT TELEVISION REPORT - 1963 |last1= Keefer |first1= Greg |date= |work= Washington County school district |publisher= Webmaster Greg Keefer |access-date= July 15, 2022 |archive-date= March 4, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160304190025/http://i4weather.net/report.htm |url-status= live }}
• {{cite web |url= https://i4weather.net/itv/message.htm |title= Dr. William M. Brish - A Message from Superintendent Brish 1963 |last1= Keefer |first1= Greg |date= |website= Washington County school district |publisher= Webmaster Greg Keefer |access-date= July 15, 2022 |archive-date= July 13, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220713123508/https://i4weather.net/itv/message.htm |url-status= live }}
• {{cite web |url= http://i4weather.net/message.htm |title= A Message From Superintendent Brish- 1963 |last1= Keefer |first1= Greg |date= |work= Washington County school district |publisher= Webmaster Greg Keefer |access-date= July 15, 2022 |archive-date= March 4, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160304185432/http://i4weather.net/message.htm |url-status= live }}
• {{cite web |url= http://i4weather.net/timeline.htm |title= 50 YEARS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TELEVISION IN WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND (A HISTORICAL TIMELINE – 1956 – 2006) |last1= Keefer |first1= Greg |date= |work= Washington County school district |publisher= Webmaster Greg Keefer |access-date= July 15, 2022 |archive-date= March 4, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160304110537/http://i4weather.net/timeline.htm |url-status= live }}
• {{cite web |url= https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED013536.pdf |title= Washington County Television Report |date= |website= ERIC Education Resources Information Center |access-date= July 15, 2022 |archive-date= September 2, 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210902110302/https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED013536.pdf |url-status= live }}

Category:Public television in the United States

Category:Distance education in the United States

Category:Education in Washington County, Maryland

Category:1956 establishments in Maryland