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

them and learning to use them well. Perhaps part of this new confidence, replacing apathy and confusion with nt'vv willingness to leani and to be informed, is derived from a sense of change taking place in educational structure, organization, staff, curriculum and even finance. Change in education is in the air; teachers do sense it, are becoming greatly interested in its many manifestations, and are beginning to ready themselves for it. But they seek practical and understanding aid wherever they can find it. They remain confused about the role of the "instructional media specialist"; and they are concerned over new demands to use new I instnunents and to "integrate" new experiences— all in the same crowded schoolday. Year 1961 recorded an impatient and driving forward surge in the AV instructional materials field; Year 1962 shows much evidence that this forward wave is breaking and curling among adamant reefs, not ready yet to succumb to the erosion of events. Role Of The Media Specialist Among the roughest of the reefs, perhaps a factor in slowing last year's surging development of the "onestop service center" idea, is the continuing need to clearly define and plan for the role of the instructional media specialist, and the need to train people to meet this requirement, on which the success of such system must finally depend. All evidence indicates that IMC will continue to develop even more broadly and more rapidly. The danger is not that this trend will change and curve away into a less meaningful direction but that the person oriented to a broad-spectrum approach ("pandemic man") will become merely the "general of the interior," in charge of push-buttons, purchase, pools of equipment and operators, and problems left o\er from AV logistics. Two pieces of evidence can be cited: one, the DAVINEA sponsored Task Force meeting on defining the role of the media specialist, from which significant materials will emerge by the time this sees print; and the survey responses, which generally emphasize the "continual pressure ... to hybridize or fragment" the AV job without the additional manpower and brainpower needed to move ahead. This is coupled with widespread warnings that AV-oriented persons are not generally playing the planning role which will be the level of decision today for developments tomorrow. Most survey respondents mentioned these two points as among the most disturbing developments of Year 1962. This is how three people said it: "Decisions and plans are moving ahead with the AV person on the sidelines and later trying to nm hard to catch up with change"; "Poorly-trained AV coordinators are unable to satisfy new demands requiring new skills"; "Faltering hesitation to commit ourselves, although what we do must be the right action at the right time." Certification of the media specialist, with all its problems of professional pressures, of preparation and philosophy, and forward direction of the field, is seen as one sandbar (not a reef, we hope) that we must sail directly over, and soon. Since most states have certification of school librarians or at least special requirements still based too specifically on printed media for the broad foundation intended today, the effort must be, some leaders feel, not only to improve and broaden present requirements to include the whole field of new media, but to create a new class of certification, combining the old rivals of AV and library interest and also the new creations of programed instruction, ETV, and other burgeoning areas. Another reef, ruffling the surface a little farther ahead, is the much-talked-about need for tremendous change in teacher education, not only to provide new media experiences and skills for the teachers of tomorrow but also to utilize new media as an integral part of the instructional and learning experiences these new teachers are now receiving. "The time has come when the single survey course must go," giving vsray to adequate adaptation of machines, methods and materials throughout the leaming-to-teach experience. And, the surveyed said, teacher certification should carry provisions for professional competence. One surveyee reports "a clearer version of our function in the educational complex," referring to the growing concern of the A-V specialist "vdth the presentation of ideas; he is concerned primarily with the design and use of messages which control the learning process." He points out that "we are beginning to realize that storage and retrieval of materials is a purely secondary function of this process." Others stressed the idea that curricular goals are not the sole province of the audiovisualist, but will continue to involve the teacher, the curriculum specialist, the building designer, and other key persons in the educational enterprise. Media, Materials And Equipment The outstanding development in the area of media, materials and equipment is probably "the continual and intensive upswing of interest in the entire instructional field." Many persons report divisions and areas "in schools, which used to use little AV material, now literally catching on fire." Others point out the heavily increasing demand for materials of all sorts, not only prepared, ready-to-use, commercial or rental materials, but also locally produced items, wherever any of the new flexible organizations of staff and schedule such as team teaching or portions of the Trump Plan, have been utilized. ' Continued development of the overhead projector and its inevitable corollary, local production of materials, is leading the field, with new types of materials for the familiar "instant transparency" processes and new equipment (exemplified by the low-priced lightweight projector just announced by ThermoFax) adding momentum. Although the deficiencies of oversimplified production are recognized ("just because it is easy to copy one-to-one is no reason to use it indiscriminately") and the values of well-planned and truly-visualized (as against simply copied) materials are still more highly appreciated, the impact of the simplified processes and the lowered cost of the instruments involved, especially the projector, is expected to have a very large effect in a growing number of classrooms. The further development of packaged "pre-produced" masters for overhead transparencies, the spread of simple facilities for local production at the school Educational Screen and Ai diovisual Guide — December, 1962 707