The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

March, 194} Page 97 Left: Workers in the Chrysler tank arsenal—from"Tanks."Right:Assembling a bombing planein the Glenn L. Martin plant—from "Bomber." (Both films are Office of War Information releases) Training Millions—with Movies (.Editor's Note: The following excerpts arc from an address by J. 11. Afc\'abb, President of the Bell & lloxvell Company, presented at the convention of physics and chemistry teachers at the Cnivcrsity of Illinois, Xo'.embcr 6. 1942.) I AM very glad to accejit your invitation to discuss with you the contrilmtion that Indtistry is making in the audio visual field to the war program—the train- ing of the millions now being called to the defense of our country, whether as soldiers or as munitions makers —or as plain rank-and-file members of the great Ameri- can public. We in industry no less than you in the .schools, have a job to do together, the biggest educa- tional job in the history of our country. Delivering facts quicker and more thoroughly than any other form of idea communication at this hour of the nation's greatest need, the educational film at long last comes into its own. In the war against our Axis enemy, we are faced with the necessity of raising, (•([uipping and perfecting a vast army. 'W^e have had to start almost from scratch for ours has always been a nation of peace.. It is quite a task to take five million or .seven million plain people and turn them into soldiers. Some notion of the vastness of the training program can he gathered from the fact that the Army Air Force alone has to train pilots, navigators, ground crews, bom- bardiers, radio operators and many other technicians for the 185.000 planes that our President has called for in 1942 and 1943. There is a grave shortage of teachers, and of all manner of apparatus they really need to teach with—but the training job is lightened considerably by excellent teaching films already available and it will be lightened still more by the many additional direct training films that are now being made. The Signal Corps, for example, the primary photographic arm of the regular army, has long been engaged in the pro- duction of army training and morale films. This ac- tivity dates back at least to the last war, and in the present conflict the u.se of motion pictures for training has been tremendously increased. The essential purpose of a training film is to shmv the viewer how to repeat an action that has been visual- ly demonstrated to him on the screen. The training films says to the trainee—"Here is an expert, doing the thing we want you to do—watch him—and then do the same thing in exactly the same way." Does it work? Well, the Army certainly seems to thinks so, and they •■ ought to know. Col. M. E. Gillette has stated that— "by using training films to supplement drill, manuals, and textbooks, soldiers are being trained now in 40 per cent less time than it took in 1917." The War Depart- ment has given the following reasons why films are valuable as time savers and as aids to improvement in the quality of instruction: 1. They concentrate attention on essentials by showing only the essential action or subject. 2. They bring demonstrations of tactical e.xercises or equip- ment to the troops, thus eliminating the time-consuming factor of moving troops to the demonstration areas. 3. The same demonstration can be shown repeatedly without expending tlie time and labor to repeat such demonstrations in the field. 4. Films on the use and care of new equipment can be shown in advance of its arrival, thus facilitating its immediate use. (It has been reported that the reason why our Russian Allies were able to put our lend-lease material into use so quickly and so effectively was because complete motion pic- ture directions went with every shipment.) 5. Instruction for all troop units is standardized. 6. Mechanical functioning of wcajjons or motors can be clearly depicted by means of slow motion and animation. 7. All members of the class can see and hear all phases of an action which otherwise can be observed satisfactorily only by those close to the scene. 8. The services of the most highly trained troops and expert instructors are utilized in demonstrating the methods and techniques illustrated on the film. This insures that all troops, regardless of location have constant visual access to the latest approved methods as a standard in attaining their training objectives. The Navy also is training its recruits by means of an imposing list of sound films that range all the way from air raids to weather reports. The Coast Guard has a growing series of films, the Air Force also, and so have the Marines. The Chief of Ordnance office has issued a list of 93 films for civilian personnel training.