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

Cincinnati. The Seminar was the brain-child of [.. C. Larson of Indiana University and was autliorized by the action of the Seattle convention in 1959. The first seminar began a study both of the content for the professional education of the general audiovisual specialist and the pattern in which this content must be developed. Much remains to be done even to lay the groundwork, and plans are now underway for a series of such seminars which will eventually, we hope, specify pretty clearly the pattern of training and experience that the new instructional technology will require of its leading practitioners. By 1970, the demands on the audiovisual specialist—the learning technologist— are going to be rigorous. First class talent will be needed to fulfill a first class demand. This means that, in addition to a rigorous pattern of training, we will need standards of admission, especially to fullfledged standing in the profession. Until very recently, the educational profession as a whole has been very reluctant to adopt this characteristic of other professions. Now, however, signs of a new attitude may be seen in several places. The American Association of School Administrators has already taken the step of setting up admission standards; naturally, in all such arrangements, there is a "grandfather clause" to avoid threatening many existing and dedicated people in the profession. Eventually, however, the new standards take over. It is especially significant, I think, that Dr. Richard Batcholder, immediate past president of the Classroom Teachers (the largest NEA division), has been advocating immediate adoption of minimum professional standards for admission to his organization. It is my personal position that we need to begin immediately studying the problem of standards of membership in DAVI; we will end up, I think, before 1970, with classes of membership and standards of admission to these classes; only by such a procedure may we develop and provide the much-needed talent for the primary tasks of audiovisual communication in the future. A rigorous pattern of content and training for the general audiovisual specialist to achieve competence, and enforcement of this competence by selective standards of admission, provide the form of the solution to the audiovisual manpower problem of the next decade. The substance of the solution is another matter, a matter that must be worked on very hard. DAVI, through its seminars, through contact with other branches of the educational profession and with industry, through the thought and research of leading thinkers in our own and related fields and through general discussion among the membership, must come up with a content for audiovisual professional training. It is easy enough to list some of the items in this content: communication theory, learning psychology, systems theory, curriculum, technical areas like production, etc., etc., etc. We need, however, a pivot on which to swing this content, whatever it mav be. That pivot must deal with the leadership role that the members of DAVI must play in the next ten years. How does our organization provide leadership? How Dr. Finn does it provide leadership not only for the audiovisual group as a whole, but for the entire educational profession in matters touching our specialty? Make no mistake about it. DAVI— the people who make up DAVI and the posture the organization takes— is important today, nationally and internationally. Our time has come. The demand for leadership is here. How shall we exercise it? One thing is certain. L. C. Larson, in his series of memoranda on the professional education problem, has insisted that the audiovisual professional must be a change-agent in education. I would go one step further and define the audiovisual professional as a learning technologist who is essentially an innovator. Change-agent or educational innovator, the audiovisual specialist faces daily (and will continue to do so) the problems of the most rapid change occurring in American education. Almost all the current educational changes are related to, caused by or, are part of our developing instructional technology. And this whether we are talking about the current problems of TV, teaching machines and language laboratories, the immediately anticipated 8mm sound film, thermo-plastic recording and instructional systems development, or the future applications of computers as teaching machines, facsimile communication between schools and data-retrieval and cataloging systems. It is apparent that the next ten years will demand that the pivot of our professional core be based upon an ability to deal with change and innovation throughout education. The end of the decade of the Sixties should see the true audiovisual professional come into being. The membership of DAVI, then, as learning technologists, as innovators, as change-agents will be, God willing, supplying American education with the needed leadership from the individual school through state systems to the federal government. This leadership imperative to close with another cliche, is a great challenge. It is also a great adventure. There is, it seems to me, little place in the audiovisual future for the fainthearted or those who prefer the good old days of the carbide gas slide lantern. There is a large place for those who want growth in professional wisdom and competence. Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide — August, 1960 431