Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

October, 1 945 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE 55 USING RECORDINGS IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM Reprinted from "The Civic Leader," o publication of the Civic Education Service, Washington, D. C., April 23, 1945. BY WILBUR F. MURRA Has the voice of Pi'esident Roosevelt ever been heard in your classroom? The voices of Presidents McKinley and Wilson? Of Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Madame Chiang Kai-shek? Of William Ewart Gladstone, William Jennings Bryan, and Florence Nightingale? All these are possible — on easily obtainable, inexpensive recordings. For that matter, have you ever used any recordings as planned aids to teaching? Some of you have, but most of you haven’t. I am among those who haven’t, so I cannot speak from experience. But, from what I have learned since, I wish I had known more about the educational potentialities of auditory aids when I was a classroom teacher between 1931 and 1940. To be sure, there were far fewer recordings available at that time than there are now, and phonographs or other playback machines were less frequently found in school buildings then than now. What is now available, however, is slight indeed compared with what we can expect to have after this year. Ten years Wilbur F. Murra, Editor of the Civic Leader, taught high school in Minnesota, 1932-35; was instructor in education at Harvard University, 1937-39; and was executive secretary of the National Council for the Social Studies, 1940-43. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree from Harvard. Wilbur F. Murra, Editor of "The Civic Leader" from now teaching without the use of recordings will be as rare — and as outmoded — as teaching without films is today, I urge you to get acquainted with this relatively new educational tool now — not only that you can thereby enrich your 1946 instruction, but also as a first step toward preparing yourself for mastery of a teaching technique that circumstances will eventually compel you to learn anyhow. Don’t think of recordings merely as a substitute for, or variation on, listening to radio broadcasts. Radio listening is an important means of learning, and some kinds of recordings— in some of their uses — are closely related to it. But radio education as such is a different story, and we are not attempting to deal with it in this article. Don’t judge the value of using recordings simply by comparing it with reading material or teacher telling or student dramatization or seeing and hearing a sound film. Each technique has its distinctive advantage, and all should be used. A recording may be played in whole or in part to start discussion or to illustrate a social or economic concept or to make vivid a historical personage or event. It can convey information, and for purposes of intensive study it can be played and re-played. Recordings can be used to teach, and test, student ability to listen critically. (Ten specific classroom uses of recordings are enumerated on pp. 7-9 of the New York University Catalogue of Selected Educational Recordings, cited below.) Recordings are of two main types: 78 r.p.m. and 33^ r.p.m. The latter are sometimes called “transcriptions” to differentiate them from the former; but this distinction in terminology is not universally followed. The ordinary phonograph record rotates at 78 revolutions per minute and comes in sizes varying from 6 to 12 inches in diameter. Transcriptions, which rotate at a speed of 33^ revolutions per minute, are usually 16 inches in diameter but they also come in 12-inch size. A halfhour program can be carried on the two sides of a single 16inch, 33^3 r.p.m. disc, while the