Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Newspaper Page Text
Talking Pictures to Transform Education “ ^ ga^,WIBP ” w>> 7 ?**^K L Czar of the Motion Picture Industry in America Foresees # New Era in School and College Life When Knowledge Will Be More East ly D issem i - nated Through Medium of Focal Films. . ~m r y HILE the public has eagerly ac ( m M / cepted the talking picture as a * m/m/ striking advance upon the enter- Jr Jr tainrnent provided by the silent . film, the real revolution inspired by this invention is not in entertainment but In the field of education. > Working quietly in laboratories and holding private conferences, scientists and educators are framing a new technique of teaching and train ing, of learning and knowing, which will mark the greatest forward step of mankind since the Invention of books and the printing press. “Within a comparatively short time,” says Will H. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc., Who is at the center of this development, “talk ing motion picture projectors and suitable films will be available for schools, and the million school rooms and college lecture halls in Amer ica will beg n the use of a new medium of education. “The child, the youth and the adult will learn more and learn more quickly. The best ideas in education will be available not only to the large citijs and the rich colleges, but will be at the disposal of all the schools and all the colleges. “The sta-ement that the talking picture will Increase the absorption of knowledge is not mere prophecy. Experiments conducted with the silent film while talking pictures were in embryo give conclusive indications of what will happen when this medium is completely ex ploited by eduea ors. “Using a pedagogic film in hundreds of class rooms. Dr. Tlwna, E. Finegan found that the percentage ri correct answers to geographic questions went up about 10 per cent above the results obtained with the old form of teaching. . ii \ S early as 1920, Prof. J. W. Shipman of . the University of Oklahoma made a test Upon a dozen pupi's of average intelligence in one of the Ii <»'n schools of Madison, Wls. Ab stract and concrete subjects were taught lo one group by mains of film only, to a second group by a superior instructor and to a third by an average instructor. “The film scored an average of 74.5 per cent; the superior toucher, (19 9 per cent, and the average teacher, 01.3 par cent. In other words, the film beat the bettor teacher by 4 6 per cent and the average t a her by 13.2 per cent. “Prof. Joseph H. Webber of the University of Kansas conduc ed a s ‘ties of tests in a pub lic school In N tv/ York City. The following Is the result of lis experiment: 485 pupils were examined in gjogr»phy. When the experiment began they ha i an average knowledge of 31.8 units. This standing had been gained from their knowledge of geography prior to the ex periment . •mfc #Ror; imnn*rrcrar/ rrc j6w? ‘r. '“•*? Medical science will benefit greatly by lhe development of educational talking pictures, which will enable students and diwtors in remote places to observe master surgeons at work, shotting their technique in performing delicate opera tions. “Prom this starting point—3l.B—the 485 pu pils wlk> were taught orally without the aid of corelated motion picture film improved to 45.5 points, a gain of 13.7 per cent. The same pupils, with the aid of the film shown after the oral lessons, improved to 49.8 points, a gain of 18.1 per cent. And when the motion picture was used before the oral lesson, the students’ standing rose to 52.7 points, a gain of 20.9 per cent.” There is now being demonstrated in New York an instrument which combines a radio, phonograph and talking motion picture ma chine. It is hardly larger than a large radio cabinet. A tray pulls out in front of the pro jector, exposing a mirror which swings upward. The light from the camera strikes the mirror and is reflected in the lid of the cabinet, which contains the screen. A 20-foot “throw” makes pos-sible life size projection. And other instru ments in the laboratories of the great electrical companies are being made ready for public distribution. “To enable the pu6lic imagination to project itself in’o the future and see what is ahead,’* said Mr. Hays, “it is desirable to review some of the ideas and achievements in the various divisions of th s field. "A talking surgical film is already in use by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Cj lurnbln University. The film depicts the reduc tion ana splinting of a Pott's fracture, a frac ture of the lower fibula with an outward, back ward displacement of the foot. The process of pulling, straightening and splinting is shown, while the physician’s voice is heard explaining the diagnosis and procedure. “Next September the college will have ready a series of films for instruction, and the medi cal schools of Johns Hopkins, the University of Pcnnsvl' inia, the University of Michigan and Ohio Sta'e are part of a group which is ex pected t j make and distribute these films. VPNK3T attention to the development of " films for medical education began in 1926, when at our suggestion the American College of Sui'gions appointed a committee consisting of Dr. J. Bently Squier of New York City; Dr. W W Chrpman of Montreal, head of McCfill University; Dr. Oeorge W. Crile of Cleveland; Di. Cha les H. Mayo of Rochester, Minn.; Dr. Bowman Crowell of Chicago; Dr. M. T. Mac- Eacherson of Chicago, and Dr. Franklin H Mart n of Chicago. With Oeorge Eastman of Rochester supplying the funds and the labora tory. the experiments began. “Viv.t' is> a great deal of talk about th' ■country doctor being backward because he takes no post-graduate studies and his educa tion stops the year he graduates. With the preparation of up-to-date medical films the country doctors, seeing these films at their local meetings, can be as well informed as the physi cians in the great clinical centers. “Imagine the value of a close-up magnified motion picture of a great surgeon performing a delicate operation and describing it minutely so that instead of 20 students watching from a balcony it could be shown to 100.000 students 1,000 times so they could almost repeat with their eyes shut. “I can think of few things more important tx> surgeons and medical students throughout the world than to have in their own clinics, perhaps thousands of miles from the operating rooms, pictures of the greatest masters perform ing these operations. “These men will see and hear Mayo, Crile, Black, Cushing, Armstrong and Chipman per form their operations with records that will never die. We could have seen and heard Murphy and Senn today if we had had this in strument before. “Doesn’t it sound like a new miracle, the story ol a few hundred feet of celluloid film, small enough almost to be put into a overcoat pocket, taking the work of the masters of tech nique to the most remote parts of the earth, to the provincial medical men, handicapped by distance and by lack of funds and opportunity? <* r j' , HE use of the talking picture in medical education is not confined to surgery, but can lie adapted to the other divisions of this important subject. The camera can catch iso lated glimpses of a slowly developing disease over periods of time and bring them together in sequence Just as the modern manipulation or tlie camera can make the petals of a flower unfold themselves in a minute, whereas the un folding process in nature may require weeks. The c- oibination of the voice of the specialist and the visual scene on the film makes an in delible impression. “On ti»e other hand, the rapid, spasmodic muscular movements incident to lesions of the brain - center can be analyzed by the slow moi ion picture with equally good results. An oth >r of the possibilities of the talking screen n»s within the cartoon film or animated draw ing. • “I wrote a letter to 523 college presidents in qu ring about their interest in the use of the frk'.ng picture to supplement the instruct i n of Tire talking picture will make it possible for all of us who thirst for knowledge to sit literally at the feet of genius. Greatness, living and dead, will speak to us and show us the way to light and un derstanding. —Will H. Hays. the faculty. All replied, and more than 300, from all parts of the country and from the greatest colleges to the least, evidenced the greatest interest. "The suggestions which follow regarding col lege education are culled from these letters and give some idea of th? revolution which is im pending in the methods of acquiring knowledge. "Experts have severely criticized the situation which compels a professor year after year to give the majority of his time to lectures which, while new to students, are routine to the savant. While a subordinate or a mechanic operates the machine with electricity at 3 cents an hour, the professor will at last be free to spend hours in valuable research, enabling him to improve his own teaching method, present new materials to his classes and give him opportunity to add to knowledge in his chosen field. "In the small college the study of biology and the physical sciences would be enriched if certain expensive experiments could be per formed before the camera with explanatory re marks by an expert. The reproduction of these experiments would save the small college money and make possible a larger series of experi ments than can now be offered. “Great college professors and lecturers will be available to all the colleges of the world Millikan, Einstein, Eiapley can explain their own findings with star maps and charts as if it were a personal lecture to college students and colleagues everywhere. “Even in economics it is possible to make strides and bring to the eyes and ears of the students the variations in life and labor all over the globe. To look in at a textile mill in the Carolinas, to see how work is done in India. China and Russia as compared with the United States, is to teach contemporary history with a vividness that is not possible new. “In teaching philosophy and ethics it would add reality to the instruction if the students saw and heard the great leaders of thought from various countries give an exposition of their ideas. Students now study about John Dewey of Columbia. How much more interest* ing and impressive if they heard him talk! ’ “How much would it add to one’s grasp ofl the sweep of history and the change in civil iza* tion if we could hear and see Alexander* Aristotle, Plato and Pericles; if Caesar, Na* poleon and Washington were to speak to ud from their own time in history; if Lincolif could be heard; if Beethoven, Bach and Brahms could give us their interpretations and their deathless masterpieces of music! ( JNSTEAD of trying to form our own warped image from the facts gathered in books, we could feel the vibrant force of these famous personalities and the tempo of their age from audible motion pictures and get a truer per spective of the past. “This will be our gift to the future—tha talking-picture records of famous contemporary events and personalities. Even now states, col leges and the Nation have begun to form ar chives of the audible film records of men and happenings which will be the teaching material of the future. Education has progressed in the form of aq| ascending spiral. We are now back at tha| point, although on a higher level, at whirl! education really began. “A man saw a log roll and invented tha wheel. Another saw a log float and invented the boat. A third genius saw that there waa a great extension of human force in the use of a pole and devised the lever. These are tha primary human inventions seen by the eye, and their use and development was taught from generation to generation bv th*' human voir* (CoayridiH. IP3<J.< 5