Lesson 18

Roles and Functions of an Educational Media Center

     An EMC is a facility designed for the housing and utilization of all educational media within the school. It is a basic requirement for a school to render quality service. It is not independent of the school. Rather, like any part of the human body, it is a unit in the school that cooperates with other units or departments that help the school fulfill its mission.

     An EMC renders various kinds of services. Its services boil down to improving the teaching-learning process by making it more interactive, collaborative, interesting and authentic.

What must an EMC have to be a functional EMC?

The evaluation questions for a functional EMC (Lucido & Borabo, 1997)

1. The Institutional Media Services

•  Is the administration committed to a media program?
•  Is the program of media services administered by a media specialist through media center?
• Is the center operating at the same level as other major institutional services of the school?
• Are there clearly defined policies, procedures, and plans for short, medium and long term coverage?
• Is the center provided with appropriate facilities.
• Is the center capable of giving media and/or educational media technology advises/assistance to the faculty.

2. Media and Instruction

• Are the faculty encourage to use media as an integral part of instruction?
• Are classrooms equipped and/or adapted for the best possible use of educational media?
• Is the media center accessible to all classrooms and lecture/conference rooms?
• Is there educational media technology information dissemination?
• Is there proper cooperation between faculty and the professional media staff in the planning, developing, and using media for instructions?
•  In particular, are faculty members assisted by the media center staff in analyzing teaching needs and in designing, selecting and using educational media to meet these needs?
• Is there a capability for production of graphics, audio, visual and other media materials for instruction.

3. Classroom Facilities

• Are classroom designed for and provided with essential facilities for effective use of educational media?
• Specifically, are classrooms equipped for full light control, electrical outlets, appropriate ventilation and media operations space?
• Are classrooms equipped with a bulletin board.

4. Media program

• Are there clear-cut administration policies on the media program?
• Is there an adequate source/system of funding?
• Is there appropriate hiring of media center supervisions, creating and technical personnel, consultants and clerical staff?