VISUAL AIDS

Visual aids are the tools of teaching through the sense of sight. They are supporting materials & they alone cannot generate learning. They should be considered only a tool that helps to do a job in a better way.Visual aids are of different types. The following are the more commonly used ones in India:

Posters

A good poster creates awareness & interest among the people. It inspires & takes people towards action. It consists of 3 main parts. The first usually announces the purpose or the approach, the second sets out conditions, & the third recommends action. A poster should be bold enough to attract attention of the people, & should communicate only one idea at a time. It should have simple letters which are clear & forceful. The size of a poster should not be less than 50*75 cm.

Flannel-graphs

Flannel-graphs serve as a good teaching aid. When a piece of sandpaper is fixed to the back of a picture, a photograph, a letter, etc. They can be made to adhere easily to a piece of thick flannel cloth, fixed on a board. They are used as an aid for group methods like informal talks or lectures.

Flash cards

Flash cards are a set of small compact cards approximately 30 to 45 cm. In size, & are used to bring home an idea, such as the benefits of a smokeless Chula, the cultivation of hybrid maize, compost-making & other practices. Pictures on the theme are drawn on these cards in a logical sequence which are flashed before the audience. Upon seeing them, the villagers are able to follow a story more easily.

Puppets

Puppets are very popular & especially suitable for village situations. Puppet shows can be effectively organized to gather the rural people. For a puppet show, a short story, brief scenes & quick dialogues are necessary. Such shows can teach a lesson about health, literacy, agriculture. Or home-making.

Slides

A slide is a transparent picture or photograph in an individual mount. For viewing the image, the picture is projected through a slide-projector which brings the enlarged image into focus on a screen. Slides are excellent aids of illustrating talks & showing people concrete activities & aspects of development. They can be effectively used to show different situations & methods of carrying out an activity. They can be arranged in a series for giving an illustrated talk on improved agricultural practices, cultivation of, etc.

Film-strips

They are a series of black-and-white or colored pictures depicting a single idea, & instead of being individually mounted are printed on a single length of strip of 35-mm film. Such strips can be shown to an audience of about a 100 people. The additional advantage in using the film-strips is that the film can be stopped anytime during the show to explain or discuss a difficult or interesting point.

Models

Models create a sense of realization in a person. Models of new equipments, compost pits & sanitation devices & animals are mostly prepared for those people who are not in a position to see them in the actual form. They are used to create interest, promote understanding & influence the people to adopt a certain practice.

Bulletin-boards

A bulletin-board can serve the purpose of making announcements, displaying events of short duration & photographs of local activities. The information should be written in simple language.

Photographs

They are a very simple visual aid. Good photographs show some action & catch the feelings & emotions of the people. They are so arranged that they tell a story. They are displayed on a bulletin-board at a common meeting-place where a large number of people can see them. They should be clear & bold in composition with proper captions.

Black-boards

They provide writing & drawing surface for chalk. They are usually used in schools, colleges & meeting places. They make possible the use of sketches, drawings, words, symbols of a combination of them to emphasize a point. Black-boards are most useful in group-teaching methods.

Cultural programmes

Local cultural programmed, such as folk-songs & dramas are used as an effective medium of communicating the message of development programmed. Dramatization of a theme or story creates a lively interest among the audience. Folk-songs & dances related to the subjects of local interest & importance, when acted on the stage, bring them home more forcefully.

For an effective use of extension-teaching methods, it is not enough to know these methods & their techniques. What is more important is the appropriate selection of a method or combination of methods for a particular situation. In fact, when a farmer is exposed to a new idea several times by different methods or a combination of methods, he is likely to accept it more quickly. Farmers learn about new practices through several stages. These stages are known as:

1. The awareness stage- when a person comes to know of a new practice but lacks the complete information;
2. The interest stage- when he becomes interested in a new idea & wants to know more about it;
3. The evaluation stage- when he mentally applies the new idea to his present situation & evaluates it;
4. The trial stage- when he applies the new idea or practice on a small scale in order to determine its utility under his own situation;
5. Adoption stage- when he decides to continue the full use of the practice. Thus, it is the cumulative affect on people through exposure to an idea repeatedly that result in action.