The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

September, 194} Page 259 Pacific Northwest Audio-Visual Conference (Report submitted by Mr. Curtis Reid, Head, Department of Visual Instruction, Oregon State System of High Education) The Third Pacific Northwest Audio-Visual Educa- tion Conference was held in Portland on June 17-18, 1943, with well known speakers from the educational film world and from the radio industry. Over two hundred teachers and professional people attended the sessions that were, on this occasion, primarily devoted to the utilization of mechanical aids to teaching. Among those participating in the program were Paul Cox, West Coast Representative of the Erpi Classroom Films, Inc.; George Jennings, Acting Director of the Chicago Round Table; Glenn Jones, Director of General Ex- tension, State College of Washington: Louis Hill, Co- ordinator. Visual Aids, U. S. Army; Dora SchelTskey, Supervisor of Teaching, Oregon College of Education; and Kenneth Wood, Instructor in Speech, University of Oregon. The conference was highlighted by an apparent dif- ference in ideologies between those representing the film group and thos engaged in radio. The former stressed the need for minute detail and meticulous accuracy in the presentation of historical material, while the latter favored a more dramatic treatment of the same material. Where those in film looked upon their medium as a valuable teaching device in itself, the people in radio conceived their function to be that primarily of the stimulation of interest in a given subject field. Of course the two views are not incompatible. Certainly one can see how the differing emphasis might develop since radio programs are devi.sed for one time use only, while films are frequently repeated for further study and the rechecking for details and ideas. Mr. Wood opened the session on "Radio in Educa- tion" with a discussion of the use of radio workshops in the public .schools. While expressing the need for high quality productions for actual broadcast, he em- phasized that much can be done in the school with seem- ingly simple equipment. Mr. George Jennings reported on the extensive activity in classroom use of radio in a large metropolitan school system. Mr. Jennings dis- cussed methods of collaboration in the planning and executing of program series. He emphasized the im- portance of giving assistance in utilization to the teachers and enumerated ways in which it was accom- pli,shed. He expressed the need for dramatic and stimu- lating forms of presentations with prime emphasis on stimulation rather than concentrated educational content. During the session on "Training with Sound Motion Pictures," Mr. Hill reviewed the history of motion pic- tures in the schools of the Pacific Northwe.st. Continu- ing, he compared the eflfectiveness of training in the armed forces through the use of films with that received by the army in the last war. Mr. Paul Cox talked on the "Selection of Subjects and the Production of Edu- cational Motion Pictures." Problems met in the fitting of scripts to general curricula, in the filming of natural science subjects, in expeditions to foreign lands were outlined . (Concluded on page 269) lew British Films Include FOUR FEATURES WORLD OF PLENTY SILENT VILLAGE I WAS A FIREMAN BEFORE THE RAID • WAR SHORTS and others on FARMING . . . SCIENCE . . . HEALTH . . . INDUSTRY Catalog ISow Ready • ALL FILMS AVAILABLE IN 16mm SOUND at nominal service charges from BRITISH INFORMATION SERVICES 360 North Michigan Ave., Chicago 1, 111. Tel. Andover 1733 448 South Hill St., Los Angeles 13, Calif. Tel. Vandike 3171 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N. Y. Tel. Circle 6-BlOO 260 California Street, San Francisco 11, Calif. Tel. Sutter 6634 1336 New York Ave., N.W., Washington 5, D. C. Tel. Executive 8825 Or Any British Consulate