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

CLASSROO] Time-lapse photofiraphy is one of the new tools used to stiidtj the living classroom situation. Here arc three stills from a time-lapse film, giving an abbreviated, but accurate picture of classroom event. ° This study was aided substantially by the advice and support of Professor Robert S. Jones, Industrial Engineering Department, and the personnel of the Audio-Visual Department, Wayne State University. JL HE term "memomotion" is not intended to be a new addition to the imposing list of pedagogic jargon. This word refers to a technique used by industrial engineers in time and motion studies. Specifically, memomotion is the study of a particular task by means of time-lapse photography and the careful analysis of that event.^ The educational researcher as well as the engineer is particularly concerned with obtaining an accurate record of the events which occur in a given location. For the engineer the site may be an assembly line or a retail store. For the educator, it may be the classroom or the principal's office. Trained observers, films, tape recordings, and the TV camera have been used extensively by educators. However, the literature reveals that only one brief study has ever been conducted by using time-lapse photography to scrutinize classroom instruction.^ This paper is intended to report the results of a further inquiry into this technique. In January, 1962, the writer met with a class of fifth grade pupils to carry out a unit of instruction. Most of the basic elements present in a typical teaching-learning situation occurred during this time, i.e. discussion between teacher and pupils, group activities, reports by children of projects they had completed outside of school, teacher demonstrations and chalkboard illustrations. In order to maintain a precise record of the instruction, two cameras were placed in the classroom. One camera focused upon the children and one camera was directed at the instructor. Kodak Tri-X film was used so that the normal classroom lighting conditions would be adequate. A tape recorder provided a sound record to accompany the film. The class met three times each week for 35 minutes. The kind of activity which was to take place on a particular day would determine the time lapse between pictures. Sometimes a picture would be taken every five seconds. Some days a picture would be taken once in every 15 seconds. This study provides support for the technique introduced by Whithall. When the series of still pictures was viewed with the tape recordings, the result was a reasonably good approximation of the classroom situation as it existed during the original instruction. In addition to providing an accurate record, the time-lapse film had certain attributes which made it suitable for analysis of a given situation. For example, it was possible to review several days or weeks of instruction in a few minutes. This overview was not readily obtained when the film was made with standard speed photography". This is because a standard motion picture camera will make 16 separate pictures every second. In 30 minutes 28,800 frames (about 700 feet of film) have been exposed. However, in timelapse photography, the same events may be compressed into 120 frames (about three feet of film) 'The analysis of a classroom situation which is recorded on video tape has similar disadvantages. 6.50 Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide— November, 1962