The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 292 Proceedings of the D. V. I. Meeting The Educational Screen At the present time, a study is being conducted by the writer in order to provide more reliable classroom use. This investigation is being carried out with the aid of a grant from the Com- mittee on Scientific Aids to Learning of the National Research Council. For use in this study, a series of six sound slide films are being produced on the subject of General Science. These films are designed for use in the man- ner that visual aids are most commonly employed. That is, they attempt to par- allel and supplement the usual general science course and textbook. Each film has a presentation time of fifteen min- utes, and contains approximately forty pictures. Since only one side of the record is re- f|uired for the 15 minute script, two complete scripts will be used for each film. On one side of the disk will be recorded a general overview of the ma- terial, to be played with the first show- ing of the film. The other side of the record will be played the second time the film is shown, and will provide a more factual and detailed treatment of the same material. In the experimental use of the films, each film will be shown three times, over a period of two weeks. The second script will be used for the second and third presentations. The evaluation study will begin the third week of the fall semester, and run for twelve weeks. Ten coopciating science teachers, and approximately 800 ninth-grade students will participate in the experiment. All teachers will be us- ing the same textbook and the same general teaching plan. The classes will be the first course in science for these students. Five experimental groups are to be used. All five groups will take the usual general science course normally taught in the school. They will all use the same textbooks, have the same as- signments, and see the same demonstra- tion experiments ordinarily used in the genera! science course. The controlled differences between the groups will be in the additional materials they will use. Group I will see the sound slide films. Group II will see the slide film, and the teacher will read the script (the .same script used for the records). Group III will use the recorded sound, but will have booklets of pictures on their desks (the same pictures as in the slide film). Group IV will use the picture booklets, and the teacher will read the script. Group V will be a control group, and will use no extra material. At the beginning of the experiment, a -Standardized intelligence test and a General Science background test will be given. The results of these tests, to- gether with information as to age, sex, etc., will be used to define the groups. A general test on the material to be covered in the twelve weeks of the ex- periment will be given before any of the films are shown. After the comple- tion of the work pertaining to each film, every two weeks, a test on this partic- ular material will be given. At the end of the twelve weeks a second form of the general test will be given. A third form of this general test will be used a month or two after the end of the experimental period, as a retention test. The comparisons planned in this study are by no means all of the interesting and worthwhile comparisons that might be made. However, the major purpose of this experiment is to provide reliable evidence as to the practical effective- ness of the sound slide film for class- room use. The results of this investiga- tion should be available by next spring. (An experimental trial version of one of the sound slide films to be used in this study was shown at the Boston meet- ing ). Motion Pictures— Not for Theatres (Continued jrom page 285) culation from a single New York library, each to meet some especial need of some particular faith or denomination. The last important frankly religious picture to reach the screens of America, before the First World War interfered with the peaceful course of development, was the fine Italian passion play "Crist- us." It had been completed about 1915, after approximately two years of elabo- rate production ranging over authentic locations in Egypt and the Holy Land. A feature was the re-creation of world- famous paintings in tableaux. The pro- ducer was Count Guilio Antamoro, the scenarist Fausto Salvatori, the sponsor Cines. With a record of "more than 1,000 performances in Paris, Rome and Ma- drid," it opened at the Criterion Theatre in New York, May, 1917, prepared for a run. But the Broadway public, it seemed, was in no mood then for the retelling of an old story about the Prince of Peace, how ever beautifully it may have been done, and the attraction was obliged to close. Produced by Romans at about the same time, directed by .^rmand Vay, the cost of approximately three million dollars de- frayed in part by the Italian Government, was a long film on the Old Testament; but this did not appear publicly in Amer- ica until late in 1922, when it was released non-theatrically by Harry Levey. And the French series of twenty one-reel biblical travelogues entitled "A Pilgrimage to Palestine," was not distributed by the Pathe Educational Department here until 1925. But central church organizations in America are usually kept well in- formed about what other nations are doing in their line, and I suppose that these foreign productions, even while they were being planned, exerted a cer- tain force of example upon our native clergy. An interesting story probably could be told by survivors of the Bible Film Company, which was launched in the un- expected place of Las Vegas. New Mex- ico, in December, 1916. Production was announced to begin "in two or three months" on the company's property at Montezuma Hot Springs. Harry C. Grigs- by of Los .'\ngeles, was the reputed fi- nancial backer, and the president and general manager was named as Dr. A. L. Andrews, a prominent minister of Fort Worth, Texas. Roger Topp, prominent Los Angeles business man, was secre- tary-treasurer, and Phil H. Le Noir, of Las Vegas, appeared as scenario editor- publicity manager. In May, 1917, C. S. Edwards, manager of the Pathe Ex- change at St. Louis, Missouri, resigned to become director-general of the Bible Film Company—but after that the record stops. In the spring season of 1917 one heard of the Unique Film Corporation of New York, which expected to produce Catholic Truth motion pictures. From Madison, Wisconsin, in October, 1917, came the report of the Trinity Film Company, to produce pictures "having biblical, his- torical, educational and industrial set- tings," started, so 'twas said, by A. Dor- ian Allison, former director for the London Film Company and later with Pathe. The strong film activities of the Methodists, 1915-1920, covering the em- ployment of D. W. Griffith and the sail- ing of eighty-six missionaries with propa- ganda reels, have already been mentioned. There now began a Lutheran Film Divi- sion, distributing from New York, and, in the same city, the Board of National Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the U. S. A. organized a motion picture program. There is more concerning the Presbyterians on a later page. The Lutherans have clung to the idea. Virtually all of the twenty-five Lutheran Colleges already have films in promotion of their own endeavors, and these enjoy a regular and fairly extensive circula- tion. In June, 1938, the National Lutheran Council reappeared with an even more elaborate project, although Dr. Ralph H. Long, the executive director, pointed out that the plan had still to be approved by the executive committee. However, a study of possibilities was even then under way. The idea was to serve Lutheran colleges, churches and missionary so- cieties ; and for them six general types of film were to be provided, to wit: 1. Films covering every phase of activity within the Lutheran Church: home, foreign, and in- ner missions; colleges, academies and seminaries; brotherhood, Luther League and Missionary Society; summer camps, Bible schools, district and national con- ventions ; historic church build- ings, monuments and localities. 2. A newsreel, issued monthly, in- corporating outstanding current events in the Churcli. 3. A series of films covering the history of the Lutheran Church in America from the time of the first settlers until the present day. 4. A series of religious films of Bib- ical characters and events for use in Sunday schools, vacation Bible schools, and general relig- ious education. 5. A series of problem films, depict- ing life situations centering around ethical, religious or social problems suggested for use in regenerating discussions. 6. Religious and educational films from other sources. (To be continued)