Dr. Marc J. Rosenberg is an assistant professor of education at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He is a member of the educational media faculty and his specialties include instructional development, educational television, and the evaluation of teaching. As coordinator of SIU's Teaching Skills Laboratory, Dr. Rosenberg provides television services for teacher training programs. Dr. Rosenberg received his Ph.D. from Kent State University (Ohio) in 1977. He is currently involved in a project to develop videotape modules for staff development in therapeutic recreation.

Introduction

In the continuously developing field of therapeutic recreation, it is critical for activity therapists to keep abreast of new techniques for helping the handicapped to participate more fully in recreational activities. This is true from both the perspective of potential remediation and is part of the ongoing responsibility to generate positive leisure experiences involving these individuals. The use of staff development programs to maintain the high level of competency of practitioners is recommended by such recognized authorities as Gunn and Peterson (1978) who advocate such programs as "keys to continuous quality work" (p. 278). In planning procedures for staff development, these authors specifically refer to the use of audiovisual training media as an important component for successful staff development programs. One such audiovisual approach which would seem to have unlimited potential in this area is the use of videotape as a training medium.

The Utilization of Videotape

When properly developed, the use of videotape presents distinct opportunities for staff development. A review of video utilization research (Chu and Schramm, 1968; Schramm, 1977) offers a number of characteristics unique to the medium:

1. It can share a good instructor with a large number of training groups. Thus it can bring practitioners the views and knowledge of eminent people having a particular expertise.

2. Through the use of duplicated videotapes, training programs can be distributed to large numbers of participants in widely scattered areas.

3. It can bring to practitioners concrete and realistic experiences and demonstrations which would be difficult to product in single settings. The visual application of basic principles and techniques within a total framework may be necessary to achieve total understanding of new material and techniques.

4. Video programs, when carefully planned, can coherently condense or synthesize material which would require considerable length in print. They can also enhance the richness of background material necessary for full viewer appreciation of the situation. Consequently, the time required for viewers to master the content of the programs can be reduced.

5. Video programs can provide simulations and/or demonstrations involving selected human subjects on videotape. This helps to avoid the problems associated with the rights of large numbers of subjects required by the numerous live presentations necessary to reach a similar number of trainees.

6. Finally, videotapes can be preserved and used continuously reducing the necessity to continuously regenerate similar training presentations.

The limitations most often mentioned in discussion of videotape training materials is undoubtedly expense. There is no question that the production of a series of high quality programs for staff development would require a large initial outlay of funds. However, the economic feasibility of the project can be justified for a variety of reasons.

Many of the costs incurred in the production are "one-time" costs. This would include the use of technical equipment, transportation to a special production site, food and lodging (if needed), fees for consultants and on-camera personnel, and other costs associated with television production. These costs can be distributed among a number of agencies undertaking the project jointly.

From a technical standpoint, if sufficient time and care is taken in the planning and production of the videotapes, such programs can be designed as to meet the needs of numerous training populations. Cost efficiency through multiple use can justify initial use of significant levels of resources and highly skilled individuals in the training project.

Finally, the ability to easily duplicate videotapes allows the program to reach larger numbers of participants at their workplace. It follows that the costs

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incurred in transporting participants to special locations for staff development activities would be reduced. Thus, as the number of program participants increases over time, the cost per participant decreases significantly.

Videotape in Therapeutic Recreation Settings

There are a number of settings where therapeutic recreation is an integral part of the overall program for handicapped individuals. Following are specific examples of how video resources might aid in staff development efforts in a number of these areas.

Special recreation associations offer a good example of how cooperation by many smaller park districts and other agencies can lead to the development of quality recreation programs for the handicapped. Clearly, the impetus for the formation of these cooperatives was that together, park districts could afford to hire the staff and establish programs of a quality and quantity that no one district could hope to support. Cooperation in developing video resources for staff training could be accomplished in much the same way. Resource people could be drawn from the individual districts to produce programs which could be used at the district, association, or state level. It could be expected that an exchange of programs between agencies would be beneficial to therapeutic recreation programs throughout the state or region, and could be easily accomplished with associations serving as program exchanges and distribution centers.

Summer camps for the handicapped also strive to provide quality therapeutic recreation programs. Because of the seasonal nature of camp staffs, training is usually in greatest demand in the spring and summer. The use of supplemental video training resources might reduce to more manageable levels the demand for onsite trainers during those peak periods.

In community living facilities, such as nursing homes and shelter-cares, programs could be developed which meet the special needs of therapists who work with the handicapped in these residential settings. This would be especially useful as recreation specialists in these areas often have limited formal training. Programs dealing with recreational therapy in nursing homes could be produced at central locations and distributed to each facility where the in-service program can be conducted on-site, thus reducing the amount of time in staff development practitioners need to be away from clients. The one-time production of such programs, reaching a large group of practitioners in community living facilities, again would allow the producing organization to recruit experts in this area from diverse locations and backgrounds for the production.

Still another series of programs could be developed for therapists working in institutions. Here problems in treating clients who are more severely disabled could be depicted on videotape, thus giving the practitioner greater insight into the special recreational problems and needs of these clients as well further developing the appropriate skills.

Recreational therapists in special schools (both public and private) could also take advantage of the video medium for staff development. Videotape programs could be viewed by both therapists and teachers to give them common grounding in both skills and attitudes from which to work. This would help to improve the teacher's perception and appreciation of the therapeutic recreator's role resulting in more- effective multi-disciplinary approaches.

Aside from practitioners themselves, there are a number of non-professional groups who could benefit greatly from these video programs. The field needs and uses countless numbers of volunteers in a variety of programs and settings. Clearly, these individuals could also improve their usefulness to clients if their skills were improved. Video resources can be shared between professionals and volunteers with the result being increased effectiveness of the volunteers at a relatively low cost both in time and monies. Further, family members and other individuals in the community having regular contact with the handicapped might well benefit from exposure to such programs through increased understanding and awareness. Current video technology makes it easy for such training to take place in the home or other community settings.

Finally, with the implementation of Public Law 94-142, regular classroom teachers, counselors, and

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school administrators could be better prepared to mainstream special populations into recreational activities if they had access to training materials. A videotape series, housed in the professional library of school or district media centers, would be readily accessible to school personnel on short notice.

Conclusion

The use of the videotape medium, along with a variety of other materials to supplement and support the staff development needs of therapeutic recreators, has a number of major goals:

1. To provide a standardized, high quality training experience.

2. To reach the largest number of practitioners possible at a reasonable cost.

3. To serve practitioners in a variety of professional settings.

4. To bring together, on videotape, the most qualified training personnel possible dealing with realistic problems and concerns.

5. To provide for a systematic delineation of training techniques, employing the most current theoretical principles and practical skills of the profession.

6. To increase the awareness and understanding of individuals other than recreation professionals concerning the needs and characteristics of the handicapped.

Finally, the use of videotape, as well as other media, in staff development, is strongly supported by agencies involved in the distribution of training funds. As Frank Withrow, of the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, USOE, comments:

Those activities which can offer efficient and demonstrateable advantages in improving the learning process will become budget items most likely to be funded. The cost benefits of (instructional) technology to deliver staff development will be the most accountable way to achieve staff development. Staff development through learning resources will reduce time and travel costs of individual staff members (1978, p.33).

It is apparent that the use of such resources can help recreational therapists, through staff development, improve their professional skills thus providing more comprehensive and sophisticated service to their clientele.

REFERENCES

Chu, G.C. & Schramm, W. Learning from television: What the research says. Washington D.C.: National Association of Educational Broadcasters, 1968.

Gunn, S.L. & Peterson, C.A. Therapeutic recreation program design: Principles and procedures. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1978.

Schramm, W. Big media, little media. Beverly Hills, CA.: Sage Publications, 1978.

Withrow, F. Staff development and educational technology. In Proceedings: Conference on Teacher Training in the Use of Educational Technology. Washington. D.C.: Federal Interagency Committee on Education, Subcommittee on Educational Technology, HEW, 1978, 33-34.

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