The fast growing development in technology especially in Television has set a new ways for people to interact with their television, back at the old days people used television as a one way communication channels, they are only be able to hear and see what programs that their local television served without able to interact with the program.
The same things happens with Instructional Television, the educational program which are delivered through television is also a one way communication channels, the students who watch the television were unable to interact with the programs. The disability of the program to motivate and to evaluate the learner was likely to continue.
With the coming of digital wave invading our technology, it has made a great deal of changes in broadcasting technology including in instructional television. Broadcasting television soon adopting the new technology to their systems which causing many new feature to their program, the era for satellite and digitalized television has just begun.
The use of satellite and digitalized program has made new opportunities for the educational TV programmer to create an exciting and interactive program which can be integrated into the curriculum at three basic levels:
Single lesson - Programs address one specific topic or concept, providing a lesson introduction, overview, or summary.
Selected unit - A series of programs providing the content foundation for a learning unit in the course curriculum.
Full course - Programs from one or more INSTRUCTIONAL TELEVISION series may be integrated into a full semester course typically in conjunction with instructional print materials.
Instructional Television may be either passive or interactive. Passive Instructional Television typically involves pre-produced programs which are distributed by video cassette or by video-based technologies such as broadcast, cable, or satellite. In contrast, interactive Instructional Television provides opportunities for viewer interaction, either with a live instructor or a participating student site. For example, two-way television with two-way audio allows all students to view and interact with the teacher. At the same time, cameras at remote sites allow the teacher to view all participating students. It is also possible to configure the system so that all student sites may view one another.