TV or Not TV

I grew up without watching much TV and believe it was the best thing for me. I didn't get to watch Sesame Street or Mister Rogers, but I also didn't get to watch the filth that was on some 20-40 years ago (you didn't think I would spill my age did you?).

As I grew up my desire to know what everyone was talking about at school when they would ask, "Who do you think shot JR?" was deep and burning, but since we didn't own a TV and I was just too busy, I never found out who shot JR and I'm not even sure I recall what show JR was on.

Fast forward many years and now I'm the mom and my children are around my knee. We do have a TV, cable and extra channels. I "had" to let my children watch Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers, but I didn't let them watch the other stuff. Most of the time they watched videos because I was too tired to do much else. (For nine years straight I was either pregnant or nursing a baby, so I will admit I used the TV as a babysitter.) But I eventually stopped being pregnant and nursing and realized how much we knew all the Disney movies soundtracks. Not a bad thing to have memorized, but there had to be a better way to use the TV. All this time I knew that we had the History Channel, the Learning Channel, A&E, PBS, Discovery and other great stations, but I didn't know how to use them.

Let me add a side note right about here. A very dear friend of mine introduced me to Multiple Intelligences and I found out I had a visual learner on my hands. How do I help this child learn in this style in a home setting, especially since I'm not really a visual learner myself? I watched this child learn rather complex ideas from watching a simple TV show. In his own words he could tell me in quite eloquent details all that Daniel Striped Tiger said to King Friday in the last three episodes of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. I knew I had to tap into this for his sake but how?.

In walked my husband with yet another gizmo..............a digital video recorder or DVR. The brand he bought was Replay TV. There are other brands out there (such as TiVo) and they work the same way. Let me explain it in simple, non technical mumbo jumbo, girl words.

Your cable or satellite feed is basically put through a computer hard drive and stored for you to retrieve it later. This is just like a standard VCR, record to view later. But here is the best part; you don't have to remember to change tapes and it (the computer) can hold many hours worth of recorded shows for play back whenever you are ready to view it. Our machine, which was purchased back in 1999 has a total of 30 hours, but they now have machines that can hold over 100 hours of recorded material. WOW! I can't wait until we update! (Please do your own consumer research into what brand of DVR you purchase.)

When you are done viewing a show you delete it (or you can copy to VHS) and it will free up that amount of time on the hard drive for you to fill back up with wonderful shows.

Now the news just keeps getting better. The company you purchased your DVR with will download channel information to your box (done in the wee hours of the morning) and then you sift through the guide and pick those shows you desire to have recorded. You will most likely have a one button touch for recording a show. You will also get to set up different ways to record the shows you desire.

On our box we have a Mr. Rogers Neighborhood slot. It will keep the latest hour (2 episodes) of Mr. Rogers to be played back at our leisure. We have a Junkyard Wars slot that will keep the latest hour of Junkyard Wars no matter the channel or time. We can even set up a slot that will record any movie with Jimmy Stewart in it. We have options to guarantee a show which means it will not only be recorded but not recorded over. Or we can set a show to record only if there is room on the hard drive and only kept as long as there is room for it.

I subscribe to all the "education" newsletters of the channels we find valuable. In those weekly or monthly emails I usually get a listing of the educational programs that channel will be showing throughout the week or month. I then go over to our Replay TV and push my one button record for those shows I think we will enjoy watching. It does take a bit of my time, but a whole lot less than putting in a tape, making sure I set the timer on the VCR right and then managing all the thousand tapes we have recorded and never seen. Oh, that is if I remember what night the shows come on. If I so choose I can even go to the Replay TV web site, log in and set up the recordings via the internet.

One thing I have noticed is that most of the wonderfully put together educational shows are on cable networks and are shown at some very inconvenient times. PBS is notorious for showing Cable in the Classroom shows between 2 and 4 in the morning, while the commercial learning channels have wonderful shows late at night.

Here are some wonderful things we have been able to record of the TV and watch at our leisure, but more importantly learn a bit more about.

Vikings, Lewis and Clark, the Wright Brothers, how tires are made (Hands on History), how a jet engine is made (PBS NOVA), about the Huns (the History channel's production about Barbarians), and the list goes on and on and on.

When we first got the box, I thought how am I ever going to fill 30 hours? Now, I know I could fill 100 hours of good quality programming, if just given the chance.

I know I keep saying the "best feature is...." but the features the DVR has are quite wonderful and this one has saved us many a time. As you know there are some good things to watch on TV, like a Seattle Mariners' baseball game, but after the third out they go to commercial. With young teenage males in my house I dive for the remote control anytime commercials come on. With a DVR you can just pause the feed and when you are ready to resume watching push the skip button and it moves forward 30 seconds. Push as many times as you need to get back to the action. Commercial gone! I refuse to watch live TV any other way now.

The day my husband walked in the door with yet another electronic gizmo that had a remote control that I had to learn, I almost sent it, or was it him, packing. Today, I wouldn't trade my DVR for anything.

by Doreen Blanding

Web pages for great channels on TV

Cable in the Classroom EXCELLENT resource!!! for Canada
PBS Teacher Source
A&E (Arts and Entertainment TV) Classroom page email sign up for classroom updates
History Channel Classroom page (you will find email sign up on classroom page) Their Classroom features are a great place to find a unit study topic.
Biography Channel
Discovery Classroom page
National Geographic Channel email sign up (please look carefully for "for educators" box)
C-Span Classroom page
Ovation The Arts Network Teacher Zone (click the correct box)
SciFi Channel Classroom page
The Weather Channel Classroom page

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