Evening Star Newspaper, June 8, 1930, Page 81

" Czar of the Motion Picture Industry in America Foresees New Era in School and College Life When Knowledge Will Be More Easily Dissemi= nated Through Medium of Vocal Films. HILE the public has eagerly ac- cepted the talking picture as a striking advance upon thé enter- tainment provided by the silent - film, the real revolution inspired by this invention is not in entertainment but 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 fnvention 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 schoot rooms and college lecture halls in Amer- fca will beg'n the use of a new medium of education. “The child, the youth and the adult will fearn more and learn more quickly. The best ideas in education will be available not only to the large citizs 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 fncrease the 2biorption 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 educa ors “Using a p-dagogic film in hundreds of class yooms, Dr. Thon Finegan found that the percentage cf corl answers to geographic questions went up about 10 per cent above the results obiarirad wiih the old form of teaching. . 1920, Prof. J. W. Shipman ot 3 »w5ity of Oklahoma made a test upon a dozen puni's of average intelligence in one of the hon schools of Madison, Wis. Ab- stract and concre e subjects were taught to one group by meins of film only, to a second group by a superior instructor and to a third by an sverage insiructor “The film seored an average of 74.5 per cent; the superior txacher, 699 per cent, and the average teacher, 61.3 per cent. In other words, the film beat the betior teacher by 4.6 per cent and the averag: trather by 13.2 per cent. “Prof. Josepr H. Webber of the University of Kansas condue o4 o s@ries of tests in a pub- Iic school in N>w York City. The following is the result of hrs cxperiment: 485 pupils were examined in grography. When the experiment began they hail an average knowledge of 31.8 units Th anding had been gained from their knowles of geography prior to the ex- periment. Medical science will benefit greatly by the development of educational talking pictures, which will enable students and_doctors in remote places to observe master surgeons at work, showing their technique in performing delicate opera- tions. “From this starting point—31.8-—the 485 pu- pils who 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 49.9 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 ccntains the screen. A 20-foot “throw” makes possible life size projection. And other instru- ments in the laboratories of the great electrical companies are being made ready for public istribution. y enable the public imagination to project in'o the future and see what is ahead,” ays, “it is desirable to review some of the ideas and achievements in the various divisions cof th's field. “A talking surgical film is already in use by the Coliege of Physicians and Surgeons of Co- lumbia University. The film depicts the reduc- tion and splinting of a Pott's fracture, a frac- ture of the lower fibula with an outward, back- waid dsplaczment of the foot. The process of pulling, straightening and splinting is shown, while (h2 physician’s voice is heard explaining the dicznosis 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 Pennsyltania, the University of Michigan and Ohio 3tate are part of a group which is ex- pect>d t) make and distribute these films ¢.}: APN©EST attention to the development of “ films for medical education began in 1926, when at our suggestion the American College of Suieons appointed a committee consisting of Dr. J. Bently Squier of New York City; Dr. W. W. Chipman of Montreal, head of McGill Univarsity; Dr. George W. Crile of Cleveland; Di. Cha!'»s H. Mayo of Rochester, Minn.; Dr: Bowman Crowell of Chicago; Dr. M. T. Mac- Eacherson of Chicago, and Dr. Franklin H M=art'n of Chicago. With George Eastman of Rochz:ter supplying the funds and the labora- tory. the cip-riments began. “Ibors iy 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 informeg 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 @Aelicate 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 to 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 of 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? "’l’HE use of the talking picture in medical education is not confined to surgery, but can.be 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 oi the camera can make the petals of a flower uniold themselves in a minute, whereas the un- folding process in nature may require weeks. The ¢ mbination of the voice of the »cialist and the visual scene on the film makes an in- d*lible impression. “On the other hand, the rapid, spasmodic muscular movements incident to lesions of the brain -center can be analyzed by the slow- moiion picture with equally good results. An- ofher of the possibilities of the talking screen li=z within the cartoon film or animated draw- e “1 wrote a letter to 573 college presidents in- qu ring about their interest in the use of the f*iug picture to supplement the instruzii-n of The 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 the 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, Shapley 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 now. “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 Johm Dewey of Columbia. How much more intereste ing and impressive if they heard him talk! ! “How much would it add to one's grasp off the sweep of history and the chang: in civilizas tign if we could hear and see Alexander, Aristotle, Plato and Pericles; if Caesar, Naw poleon and Washington were to speak to ud from their own time in history; if Lincold could be heard; if Beethoven, Bach and Brahms could give us their interpretations and their deathless masterpieces of music! “INS’I"EAD 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 cof their age from audible motion pictures and get a truer pore spective of the past, “This will be our gift to the future—the talking-picture records of famous contomporary events and personalities. Even now States, cole leges and the Nation have begun to form are 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 am ascending spiral. We are now back at the point, although on a higher level, at whichj education really began. “A man saw a log roll and invented the wheel. Another saw a log float and invented the boat. A third genius saw that there was a great extension of human force in the use of a pole and devised the lever. These are the primary human inventions seen by the eye, and their use and development was taught from generation to generation by the human voice ¥ - (Copyright. 1030,