The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 182 The Educational Screen division of our school is that no fihn may be selected for classroom work unless it has been previewed or seen by the instructor in charge. 5. If, after the preview, the instructor feels that the film is of sufficient merit and pertinence, he asks us to get it for him at a certain time and to be shown in a place of his own choosing. 6. We stamp the card "Approved" if the instructor thinks the film will suit his needs. We stamp it "Recom- mended" if he thinks it is very good, and provided it has technical excellence in photography and sound. 7. We are a service organization. We correspond to a library. When an instructor asks us for materials it is our job to try to get them for him. This means that we must get the equipment, the operator, and the film to the right place at the right time and project the film with care and effectiveness. This service has been greatly simplified during the cur- rent year by the construction of the Cinema Laboratory, a classroom especially built for the effective showing of films. Previous to the construction of this classroom the machines were transported to as many as twenty lo- cations within a single week. Now more than ninety percent of our projections are in the Cinema Labora- tory to which the instructors bring their classes. Our experience in this respect differs from that of some other places. First of all, having a theater for the special purpose of showing classroom movies does not seem to create the attitude on the part of the students that they are going to a "show." Neither does the use of a regular operator rather than the teacher tend to create this attitude. The attitude which students have toward a movie showing is dependent upon the instruc- tor, not the place in which the film is shown nor the method of showing. In any case, if some of our show- ings might assume the aspect of entertainment, we feel it is so much the better as long as students get the material. 8. After each class showing we ask the instructor to rate the film used. First of all he tells us in what ways the film has proved to be of help in his course. In 16% of the cases of film use during the current school year, motion pic- ture films clarified material which the class had already covered. In 5% of the cases the film gave additional facts to previous class material. One-tenth of the films served as a summary of material that had already been covered. In 15% of the instances, the film served as an introduction to a subject which the class was about to undertake. The principal contribution of one-fourth of the films was that they made the material more vivid or interesting. In 17% of the cases the film provided a general background for fuller appreciation of course materials. In a few instances instructors felt that films had helped them integrate with work offered by other departments. The second question that instructors are asked is: if the film was of no assistance to your class, please indicate why. Throughout three years of such reports, no instructor has reported that the subject matter was too far removed from what the class was studying. This fact, we believe, is the result of fairly careful film selec- tion. Based on the showing of about 2000 reels, 1.25% of the showings resulted in reports tiiat the subject matter was too simple; 1.66% that the subject matter was too complex; 1.25% that the same material had been covered more effectively by some other method. Other negative comments offered by instruc- tors (in rare instances) have been that the film was a little dull, not clear, hodgepodge, or lacked dramatic effect. The third question tliat we asked of instructors is whether the accuracy of material, scope of material, thoroughness of material, organization, etc., has been good or bad. Instructors consistently rate at least two- I thirds of the films very high as regards to content. The most frequently mentioned weak point is that the ma- terial is out of date. Besides accuracy, scope, thorough- ness and organization of material, films are rated on titles, photograpliy, speaking, other sound, acting, cos- tumes, and setting. All items considered, 8% of the films that we have used have been rated as poor and 13% as below medium quality. 16% are considered of adequate merit, 28% very good and 32% excellent. The percentage of films that get good ratings has not increased over a three year period; thus it appears that the quality of films used on this campus has not im- proved. However, we have found a greatly increased use of films not on our "Approved" list. Many instruc- tors believe that even a poor film is better than no film and so are willing to try a few new titles each year. It is, we find from our records, the use of these films that has kept the average film rating at the same three year level—the films with high ratings are repeated from year to year, but not usually those with a rating below five on a scale of ten. 9. We now api^roach another question on which each film user is asked to report. This question concerns the methods by which he tried to get tlie maximum value from the money and time expended: what methods did you use to make the film effective by tying it in with other course materials? We feel that asking this question of each film user not only gives us a pretty fair picture of what is going on, but the very fact that the instructor has his attention called to the various ways of using films effectively might encourage the adoption of some of the methods. We discovered, for example, that although 27% of the reports claimed that the in- structors told students what to look for in the film, only 23% of them had previewed the film or had even seen it before. Then it was that we began our campaign to have no unpreviewed film used in a class. Effective methods of film use were reportd to us as follows; in about four cases out of ten the classes had discussions about the film afterward. In some cases instructors have asked to have the film shown twice with discussion of the main points of the film between showings. Other instructors have found it helpful to have the chairman of a class committee pre- view the film. Lectures previous to or following the showing are probably too common. Reference back to the film frequently in projects that follow the film show- ing seem to be very helpful. 10. Finally, we ask each instructor to offer comments on our service so that we can improve our weak spots or continue our more effective procedures. I