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

The Case For Upgrading Of Equipment Standards by Robert E. Browning A HE equipment standards recommendation spelled out later in this article has been in effect now for approximately a year and a half. Its definite influence may never be calculated; however, certain trends are most evident even to the casual observer. These trends are influencing the educational pattern in Southern California to a marked degree. School districts are thinking in positive terms as to upgrading their present equipment inventories as well as devoting specific portions of their budgets toward the replacement of older pieces of equipment. The aforementioned equipment standards recommendation developed early in 1961 as a project of the Audio-Visual Education Association of California, Southern Section, has provided ammunition for decided change in those districts financially able to help meet the increasing demands for a better educational program. If the reader will forgive the use of approximate District A.D.A. Schools per district Classrooms per district Classrooms with Light Control Mounted Screens Motion Picture Projectors Shde and Filmstrip Projectors Transparency Projectors Opaque Projectors Tachistoscope Attachments Phonographs Radios Tape Recorders Television Receivers Public Address Systems 372 ( Average per c listrict ) Janl Mayl in 1961 1962 crease 9516 9775 3% 12 12 — 309 315 2% 168 156 (-)7% 83 85 2% 34 38 11% 31 35 12% 6 7 17% 7 9 29% 5 6 20% 90 108 20% 35 36 3% 22 26 19% 13 23 77% 13 16 23% figures, perhaps he will find additional information of interest in this breakdown ( column 1 ) as to growth of equipment inventories in certain schools of Los Angeles County. One-third of the districts in the county were polled (time was the limiting factor) and these are the results. They show the approximate increase in specific requested areas of the audiovisual equipment inventory within 19 districts in Los Angeles County (10 unified districts, 3 secondary districts, 6 elementary districts, 50 secondary schools, 182 elementary schools ) . Needless to say, in nearly every case mentioned above, the percentage figure is in no way indicative of what each of the districts polled had to report. A district with 536 classrooms, 499 of which have light control, is bound to skew the over-all results obtained. The above results do show, however, a substantial gain over and above the normal growth factor of about 3 percent as indicated by gain in A.D.A. and the average number of new classrooms per district. The equipment standards recommendation which follows was the result of committee action involving 12 audiovisual personnel with varied backgrounds of state, county, city and building experience. Pierce E. Patterson, director of audiovisual services from the Orange County Schools was chairman of the committee, on which this writer was privileged to serve. The previous Equipment Standards Recommendation of the Audio-Visual Education Association of California-Southern Section, made in 1955, included two categories: basic and recommended. Realizing the pressures upon the superintendent and the business manager, the present committee felt that in the great majority of cases where the recommendation was looked upon as a guide, the "basic" category would be followed more readily than the much more effective, "recommended." For this reason one of the first decisions made by the 1961 committee was that of establishing a single category only, a recommenda Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide — July, 1962