Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

CampanellaAV Pioneer by Robert T. Fisher JL T is possible to locate, in the history of the development of audiovisual education, many significant mennotably Plato, Thomas More, Andreae, and Bacon. But the writer who perhaps saw most clearly and whose vision was widest was Thommoso Campanella. What Campanella described in his seventeenth century Utopia, the City of the Sun; has become, to a large extent, accepted modern practice in the area of audio-visual education. Campanella proposed a system of psychology which included, in the area of instruction, the concept that all learning must take place through the senses. He was among the first to attempt a break with idealistic philosophy and consequently became among the first to propose naturalism. In order to promote his concept of sense education, Campanella involved virtually the whole city in audiovisual education. He conceived of the city as being one vast educational institution. As part of this proposal Campanella felt that the city of the future should consist of several walls. These walls which ringed the city were ostensibly proposed as military installations to thwart attack. Basically, however, they were the backdrops wherein mock-ups, dioramas, specimens and pictures were placed. For example, each of the walls contained the following categories of information: Paintings of all the stars along with descriptions and information as to their movements; mathematical representations and their operations and formulae; geographical representations of the earth, and a more detailed geography of every known country; sociological and anthropological representations of people of all countries, including pictures and mock-ups; the alphabet of the City of the Sun as well as that of all other languages; mineralogical specimens with accompanying descriptions; a map of the world containing descriptions and samples of agricultural and manufactured products of each region; meteorological maps and descriptions of various climate and weather phenomena; samples and pictures of all trees, plants and herbs grown in the world with descriptions as to their properties in regards to medicine and food value; pictures and samples of all fishes and animals found in the world accompamed by descriptions as to their habitat, feeding habits, how caught, and food value. Another wall showed all the birds and insects along with the appropriate descriptions; mechanical arts along with the type of tools and equipment needed were represented on another wall; still another was devoted to statues of all the great inventors in the history of the world. Throughout the city there were gardens where live animals of all types were placed in their natural settings. Terrestial and astronomical globes were placed in various places. Museums were situated throughout the city as were parks and gardens. Weather vanes and instrinnents to determine wind speed as well as other devices were placed in several strategic spots. For Campanella, education was based primarily upon the principles involved in the scientific method. Science is properly speaking the attitude of always drawing conclusions from data and verifying these conclusions by means of observation and experimentation. Perhaps a major constituent of the scientific attitude is that it produces a feeling of reluctance to rely upon authority. Campanella felt that by proposing a system of education based upon his 'audiovisual' innovations he would remove the student from the classroom. Campanella felt that truth could not be given to a student by means of the lecture method because he had to trust to the authority of the teacher, and further it held mere memorization of facts as the highest learning. The student in the City of the Sun would learn by observation and experiment and thus would learn to rely upon his individual reason. He would not be required to state that something is true without first testing it. Thus a sense of independence would result. Critical thinking would be the end result of the program of education proposed by Campanella. We, at the present time, are moving, and moving rapidly, to utilization of audiovisual materials and methods in the public schools. Reliance upon field trips, observation, experimentation in laboratories, teaching machines and manufacturing by the students of learning materials will result in Campanella's stated end of education. Edlcatio.nal Screen and Audiovisual Guide — June, 1961 279