Business Screen Magazine (1965-1966)

iKilion Needs Programs. Ideas to Keep cvXilli llood of i\e\> leatliiiig DeN ices ,1, DiM'ii!*!* "KdiH'atioMiil Urnllir-" jii \>1A (!<>nf<'rfn«'«' i)s Evidence of mass pro on i>f new teaching de Mied al the American c ^lU Association's Scc ' 'national Conference & 1 Educational Realities aiericana Hotel in New •-list y-12, Harold Howe .'mmissioner of Educa .V address, warned that :ave machines that can iiuliave nothing to say." He 'Hi the equipment manufac r; to venture into making j)H.-s of hardware unless he 0 :epared to go all the way mranmiing. ""Otherwise, he ia\ created an empty vessel. up a glorified page-turner." . lovve suggested that the ibiicated buyer of highly jt'ited hardware and ma > IS in great need of guidp. vibiy even by such a rcgu r.ingement as patterned ■ ' u)d & Drug Administra igh he was not neces uired to endorse this But some working to establish national I learning and teaching ^\as definitely desirable. Ill W Technologv With Ideas" rr ng on this same theme. Gardner, Secretary of I; ducation and Welfare, in 1. interview screened at the warned that "A great ney could be spent on A ithout adequate con I ^^ Ithout adequate educa i CIS. And that money will i> .■> down the drain. The > ti.it's really going to pay s K money which goes to il best technology with the d;,s."' * * * mJownstairs from the ball 1 liere Mr. Gardner and Mr. t lerc speaking, 6U exhibitors iclatcst, most sophisticated, t electronic audio-visual . projection and rctriev<U\i> were demonstrating that i liiirdware seems to be outware in the race to satnj needs of the almost billion r|i year educational audioI n.irket, the hardware is -onishing. nnstance. RCA's Select-A) student booth contains a ER 5 • VOLUME 27 Commissioner of Education Howe, Holing the increasing number of leaching devices, suggested that school buyers need guidance . . . typewriter, a TV screen and a dial. The student simply sits here — in a classroom, library, or even a distant dt)rmitory — and dials for the information he needs. Needs Are Local, Specialized But while the universal dial systems had their advocates at the Conference, Charles Palmer, Executive Producer, Parthenon Pictures. Hollywood, pointed out that "one thing we can not prepare for is the science-fictioneer's happy dream of the gargantuan National Information Retrieval System, in which all human knowledge is stored, tt) be disgorged on dialed requests from anywhere in the country for instant read-out on one's home. i)ffice or dormitory Videophone. ""Despite the obvious absurdities, kin to the dreams of the freshman who has just read "Brave New World', some of the current forecasts being made quite seriously, seem, when we think things through, almost equally impractical. It seems to me obvious and inevitable that for the forseeable future. Information Retrieval Systems will be (a) locali:.ed-much in the manner of CATV Systems — and ( b ) specialized, as to the subjects stored in them. Take a WaW to the Library ""The limitation on the geographical service area," Mr. Palmer continued, ""rises mainly from the costs of the telephone circuits, since there are very few students who could dial a central storage system from an outlying location, and pick up the tab for a ten-min ute broad-hand video report on, say, the social acceptability of hydrogen sulfide. 1 hen there's the limitation on the number of incoming telepht)nc trunk lines which the System itself can install and pay for. Moreover, even on the Government's own nationwide leased-line. long-distance telephone network (the Eederal Telecommunications System) callers must often wait a half-hi)ur or more for one of the trunks to clear . . . and in that length of time, our student could just as well take an old-fashioned walk across campus to the library to get his wanted information. "It seems to me, " Mr. Palmer said, "that as we gel farther along in the actual usage of Information Retrieval Systems, we will realize that there will be two broad Producer C^harles Palmer forecast greater use of economical, more accessible Hmm films in schools. classifications of audio-visual reference material, each to be retrieved' in its own appropriate way. The short, direct answer to the specific query, the concentrated shot of supplemental information, can come naturally out of the RCA demonstrated its "Select-ALesson ciiuipnu-nt." where students sim]>lij dial for rrferencc data. formal Information Retrieval Systems. Film 1(1 Be More Accessible "But the longer pieces of material— the filmed course surveys, the full-treatment documentaries, the historical feature movies, the filmed great plays, the growing file of recent-history TV news coverages, even the travel films to support language studies — these, in today's conventional running lengths of 20 to 30 minutes, an hour and st)metimes two hours, far too expensive lor IR to store and too costly in circuit time for telephone readi)ut, will become more and more immediately accessible to the student and researcher through the upcoming economies of X mm optical-track film prints . . . the word "inmiediately" used in the sense of time it takes to walk or drive to the library or film depository where the film can be viewed in special rooms, or — and this is of real significance — borrowed for viewing at home, or in the office, or dormitory. Predicts New 8mm Equipment "The development which will make this a practical practice is only about a year away, in the form of revolutionary new carryaround 8mm automatic projectors which will accept the film in preloaded snap-in cartridges; will show the pictures on built-in screens like television sets without darkening the room, and so low in price, both as to projector and the cartridged prints, as to make screening of films almost as simple and cheap as reading borrowed books. "1 wish I could tell you more about this, but the announcements will be public in a few months. One basic assurance: for the purposes of the current discussion, this new equipment will not fight for position with any Information Retrieval System. "Rather, conventional film forms will work in harness with the oncoming Information Retrieval Systems, until audio-visual learning materials at long last b gin to deliver the broad and educational usefulness whi so long ha\e promised." 1,200 Attended tl Mr. Palmer \' speakers manN a wide variety -i~ in their prcsi . , ... l onfer ence, wbich was attended by over 1.200 educators and businessmen. Ed Notk. ab.stracts of other Conference papers will be published in subsequent fall issues. 19