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

ticular teaching job at a given level. We have much to learn, and so do the language instructors in terms of use and advising on the subject. Here is an example of cooperation needed between audiovisual and subject specialists, and the manufacturer. 11. As an over-all trend, the audiovisual education field will both grow and fuse within the curriculum to a degree unheard of at present. There are a few areas where there is marked need for cooperation between educators, producers, manufacturers, and vendors or representatives. All should work together to promote the field as one of basic instructional materials. Each year there is a waste amounting to millions of dollars of sponsored films ostensibly produced for direct or indirect classroom use. In recent years there have been some welcomed examples of sponsored films which have done a .superlative job in the classroom; example Ford's The American Cowboy and General Petroleum's In The Beginning. However, as a whole, "sponsored films " are in need of more accurate focus if school consumption is sincerely desired. \Ve need and can use good quality materials from business and industry. We need to spread the word that the schools themselves are not the only users or believers in the techniques of audiovisual education! We need to cite the fine audiovisual programs conducted in many branches of the government such as the National Park Service and the Armed Forces, the outstanding in-service training programs of innumerable major business firms and industries, and the many programs in the religious field. We also have the problem— which affects us all —of what is the future for the "audiovisual dealer." This is the firm that is reliable, demonstrates the equipment, has adequate repair facilities, and yet is consistently outbid on equipment by the corner drug store. The bid system is important, but so is service and the repair and maintenance of equipment. Repair and maintenance should be as important to a prospective purchaser as the equipment itself. Manufacturers and representatives should not be reluctant to pass on a good idea or technique they have observed in some other city, college or university. Some manufacturers' representatives are in a superb position to come in contact with more different types of audiovisual programs and ideas than any of us who work in the field of the teaching-administrative side. Perhaps the most important aspect of cooperation is one that cannot be stated in delicate terms. It is the marked need for more functional audiovisual education equipment. The best way to promote any idea or technique is to make it as easy, simple and foolproof as possible for the potential consumer and user. This is not the case with present audiovisual equipment. For the most part it is cumbersome, difficult or unstandardized in operation, unattractive, noisy, and not up to what American engineering has done in countless similar equipment and appliance fields. For example, take four current models of different 16mm motion picture projectors and put beside them the same make manufactured fifteen years ago. Note any difference? Hardly any. Projectors have simply not changed, other than a series of color and knob placement faceliftings and some desirable internal mechanism improvements. Essentially the projectors of today are the same as fifteen years ago, and they are replete with the same problems and limitations. Now, turn to another field. Take as an example, vacuum cleaners and compare them with their fifteen-year-old counterparts. The difference is obvious; it is startling! This is a period in which we, should foster integrity and trust in audiovisual education and instructional materials between educator, producer, manufacturer and representative. This is a situation where mutual cooperation is valid; you cannot please everyone but we should be able to please more than we have. We can progress only if we continue the purposeful, objective exchange of data and ideas between experienced and practicing personnel. Audiovisual education is on the threshold of major advances and new depths of use and public acceptance, but we must proceed professionally. We all know what these techniques can do, but a one story building on a solid foundation is a better investment than a skyscraper on quicksand. For the most part this is public money; you pay it and I pay it. It should be spent only for those items of proven merit. We will move ahead, but at the same time let us regard the present high public and national interest in instruction as an opportunity to reinforce many of our basic beliefs in the tools and techniques of audiovisual education. Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide — December, 1959 641