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

They are simple, accurate, valid statements and should not be eclipsed by advanced electronics! There are some disturbing factors within oiuown profession. Teacher recruitment and training is at a point of decline. Due to low salary and in some areas low professional status, we are not attracting many desirable people to education. Remember, the classroom teacher is still the most important element of an instructional program. In many teachertraining institutions good solid training in audiovisual and instructional techniques has become lost or hybridized within a confused welter of methods and administration courses. Much of this teacher training has become "self-centered" rather than "community-centered" — the true role of the good teacher. In some instances prospective teachers may be taught by instructors who have had no actual experience in public school education or who were associated with it many years ago and let few new ideas permeate yellowed lecture notes. Teachers may be trained on a pink-cloud basis, keyed to idealized conditions which well may not exist on most practical teaching jobs. Many in-service offerings need overhauling to become more evaluation and utilization-centered than overtly concerned with equipment operation. Those state teacher training institutions with audiovisual unit requirements for teacher certification are to be congratulated. There are some areas of possible trends in the future that need our support and a cooperative watchful eye. Here are a few: 1. Because the American people are demanding it, there is a swing back toward the emphasis on the 3-R's. This is the trend, and the social sciences and arts will for a time take a back seat. This does not mean that we should abandon the perfection of better teaching tools in these fields, for we will alwavs need social scientists and artists. 2. We may see a marked interest in the simpler type of instructional aid with emphasis upon local production in terms of slides, films and overhead materials. With present inexpensive and automatic 35mm and 16mm cameras coupled with available film emulsions, excellent local teacher-made units can be produced. We need more localized audiovisual material. 3. An-ll-month-school-year may become a reality in the future in order to make better use of the public investment in school plants and to intensify and speed up the educational process as a whole. 4. There will be greater interest in the techniques of evaluation of instructional materials. This has been a neglected aspect of our field, and now with a market literally swamped with materials, the need for effective evaluation techniques is more apparent. ■5. We will see markedly improved school plants in terms of basic audiovisual installations and provisions. We will see teacher-desk-tcaching stations; i.e. the teacher's desk as a focal point of both projected, audio, and television activities. These units will be an integral part of the desk or immediate area. Room darkening provisions will become a standard fixtiu-e. 6. There should be a growth in filmstrip use, both in silent captioned and the sound types. In terms of coverage and over-all quality, filmstrips represent one of education's best instructional buys. 7. Much more in the field of realia and specimen materials will be included or emphasized within the concept of audiovisual education. Although in the science fields, audiovisual education is the logical source for fine circulation sets of fossils, crystals, minerals, rocks, ores, mounted plant and animal materials, and seashells, to mention a few. We learn much through the tactile sense; it has been neglected in terms of well organized potential. 8. Educational television is here to stay, but in just what form no one knows. Closed-circuit TV will evolve as a highly useful and specialized technique and should be divorced from the stereotyped concept of 'educational TV.' Educational TV remains in an experimental stage, and we must overcome certain statements and inaccurate publicity given to the media at the outset. It is another interesting, valuable, instructional tool. It has its place. 9. The importance of the 16mm film will continue, and we should see some imaginative and powerful changes in format. We should reject films that are not good solid instructional films easily justified in terms of teacher and class time. The arty, bizarre and offbeat films should be evaluated very carefully indeed. 10. The Language Laboratory is with us (although it is not a new idea ) and the next few vears should reveal much about the different types of equipment best keyed to do the par 640 Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide — December, 19.i9