Film and education; a symposium on the role of the film in the field of education ([1948])

Preface This book has but one major purpose — to present within the useful limits of one volume a comprehensive survey of the present and potential uses of the 16mm educational motion picture in our modern society. It is a task which defies any single writer; the variety of film uses and the experience required to write about them are beyond the ability of one individual. For this reason, The Film and Education is the deliberate product of thirty-seven writers, each one discussing a phase of educational film use with which he is most thoroughly familiar. It should be emphasized at the beginning that the word "education" is used here in its broader sense — i.e., "the acquisition of knowledge or skill." It is a connotation of the word which encompasses both schooling and training, whether formal or informal, whether in school or out of school. It relates to that acquisition of knowledge and skill which occurs in school, factory, business, church, or in any one of a dozen or more aspects of everyday life. The term "educational film," therefore, as used in this4>ook, refers to the motion picture in any and all of its uses where it intended to inform, orient, or motivate its audience to some useful end. In this sense, the educational film includes such categories as teaching film, business film, informational film, documentary film, religious film, training film, sales film, and many more. If this book seems to give an undue amount of space to uses of the film in the schoolroom, it is because film applications in that area are more particularized and the research and writing more definitive. It would be totally incorrect to assume that the worth of IX