Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

The editors of Educational Screen are privileged to present here excerpts from the Kenneth Edwards Memorial Address delivered by Dr. David H. Henry at the University Film Producers Association's Eighth Annual Conference. Dr. Henry is Executive Vice-Chancellor of New York University, a man many say is destined to be one of the leading university administrators. By the time this is printed he may be on his way to the presidency of the University of Illinois, according to latest newspaper reports. One thing is certain: what Dr. Henry says about the educational film and its future cannot be taken lightly. WHAT is the setting in which we face our tasks in education today and how will it alter in the next ten or twenty years? There are at least four elements. (1) There is an unparalleled demand for educational service in this country, at all levels — preschool, elementary, secondary, college, adult ... (2) Education at all levels is of unprecedented importance . . . education is basic to the security and growth of America ... (3) We face this unparalleled demand of unprecedented importance at a time when there is widespread misunderstanding of the nature, objectives, and requirements of educational service ... (4) We face the new load in education with inadequate tools and a very great lag between professional knowledge and professional practice The educational film is one of the few known possibilities to help significantly in meeting the new load. From experience of the last twenty or thirty years, we know of the efficacy of the film, of its part in the learning process. Research is needed for its further development, but on the basis of what we now know, the film appears to be indispensable in the tasks ahead. What Good Is a Film? The film is an instrument of communication, not an end in itself. (How often have you seen the teacher who assumed that after she had used the film, the work was done?) The film is one of the mass media, along with journalism, radio, television, the theater; in all of these the medium is no more important than its content. Professor Harvey Zorbaugh has made this pertinent observation: "As I view educational films, I frequently feel that in producing them we have forgotten the old act of communication formula, 'Who says what to whom?' There is room for attention THE UDUCATIONAl 1955-1975 by DAVID D. HENRY both to what we are trying to say and to the audience to whom we propose to say it, and what it is likely to mean to the audience." Stuart Chase makes the same point in his book The Power of Words: "A recently developed machine can magnify a spoken word one billion times, in decil>els. Yet, while talk exhibits its present uncertain quality, how does a billion-fold amplification improve it? Or does amplification make it worse?" We can also jwse the question, "Wliat does a film do for a mediocre or poor idea?" We ought not to assume that the film automatically improves education. Too many film producers have made that assumption, without recognizing, as Stuart Chase says, that stereotypes can be damaging, that cultural lag can be increased as well as narrowed, that entertainment can crowd out knowledge, that knowledge can be watered down to the point of ineffectiveness, that ".spectatoritis" is not inherently a sound educational posture. On tlte other hand, we know tiiat the film can speed up learning, aid retention, deepen understanding and enridi and enliven the whole process. What the Teacher Has— and the Film Should Have Communication does not inevitably result from using the tools of communication. Attention-getting does not guarantee listening, let alone understanding or remembering. Here we are dealing with an intangible inherent in the educational process. The sincerity and integrity of purpose of the educator are basic to teaching effectiveness . . . Tlie good teacher establishes a mutuality of interest witli the student and this quality must also characterize the effective educational film. People will not listen in the classroom or anywhere else unless they sense this mutuality of interest. If we adopt this philosophy in our educational work, we shall be immeasurably successful. Lyman Bryson, in his recently published lecture on adult education, where he toudies briefly on the mass media, says this: "The effect of any institution on the lives of human beings is far more important than the institution judged by any other standard. What happens in the mind of the student reading Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet for the first time is more important than any 416 Educational Screen