Motion pictures for instruction

Front matter

Library of Congress-Central Charge File

Author

Motion jdstio^ far toat«i0ti<m

Preface

The Growth of Visual Education

In 1924, Nelson L. Greene, Editor of the Educational Screen, estimated the number of non-theatrical motion picture machines at 15,000. In that same year the National Education Association established a department of Visual Education, and The Commonwealth Fund conducted an elaborate series of experiments in Visual Education (reported in Professor Freeman's volume, Visual Education, Chicago University Press). The U. S. Bureau of Education has published a further investigation in the universities, colleges, state departments, normal schools and cities to discover the type of organization and methods employed in visual education departments (Visual Educational Departments in Educational Institutions, Hollis). This study and one conducted by F. Dean McClusky of Purdue University, and also a list by J. V. Ankeney, secretary of the National Academy of Visual Instruction reveal that forty universities, normal schools, etc., have an organized department of visual education for the distribution of films, slides and other visual aids, many of which also offer courses in visual education, with college credit, and that fifty cities maintain departments of visual education ; that the Educational Screen (which has absorbed the magazine formerly called,

•vii viii

PREFACE

Visual Education and is now the recognized organ of the visual education movement) in its booklet, "1001 Films," lists nearly 3000 motion pictures for non-theatrical use; that the U. S. Government, through various departments, has produced for educational use some 250 film subjects, running into two or three times as many reels; that the Ford Motor Company, International Harvester Company, General Electric and similar firms have produced another thousand reels of an educational nature; that numerous health and welfare organizations have added several hundred more; that non-theatrical motion picture companies like Urban-Kineto, Burton Holmes Laboratories, General Vision, American Motion Pictures Corporation, and the Yale University Press Film Service have created a considerable library of educational films; and that even the theatrical motion picture producers have put at the disposal of the schools and churches, a considerable group of feature films, scenics and science films which have educational value.

Where to Get Classroom Films and How to Use Them

for Teaching

Despite this very considerable production and use, there is an urgent demand by school people today for information on where to get suitable films to accompany their regular classroom work, and how to use these films so as to produce real educational results. The mass of production cited above is not organized into any one volume embracing both the sources and the pedagogy of educational films. The present book

PREFACE ix aims to meet this need. It lists and describes some 1,500 educational films, arranges 120 of these into three different libraries for courses of study, and presents a series of actual film lessons, showing the methods of presentation and follow-up work used by many different educators. Important studies in film pedagogy are discussed, an attempt is made to discriminate between valid and exaggerated claims for this new educational tool, and the latest statistics of the movement are gathered for convenient reference. A bibliography lists the important literature of the subject.

Visual Education and Experimental Psychology

Visual educationists are not primarily psychologists nor physiologists. They have produced nothing new in the psychology of vision, but have concerned themselves with the organization and use of visual stimuli adapted to education. The research laboratories in experimental psychology and the physiology of the senses are common sources to which all can go for the technical data of vision. Specialists like Wundt, Humboldt, and Miinsterberg have made substantial contributions to our knowledge of vision, and the curious reader is referred to their works for the psychophysiological facts of this important sense.

The "87%" Myth

Writers in visual education who have been tempted to use figures giving the percentages of our knowledge gained through the different senses have found

X

PREFACE themselves embarrassed when exact sources and quotations were demanded. Eeliable laboratory data on such facts have not been reduced to such exact form.

Five years ago the author attempted to run down a statement which had been much used by commercial moving picture interests and quoted by educators. One magazine ran a diagram divided like a pie showing that psychologists agreed that 87% of our knowledge was gained through the sense of sight. The author determined to trace the psychologists who had agreed. He wrote the editor for their names. The editor didn't know any, but referred to a prominent business man, who had made the statement; the business man said he didn't know the psychologists, but he heard a preacher state it in a sermon.

Educators have taken the educational value of visual data for granted for many years, and the classroom is full of blackboards, maps, pictures printed on paper, or enlarged and projected by lenses. The tremendous vogue of the moving picture and the new emphasis it has given picture language, has impelled educators to bring films and slides into the schools. But the motion picture, especially, involved the use of unfamiliar and costly machines, and films required a technical knowledge of storage, patching and shipping.

Film Pedagogy, an Unknown Quantity

There had been no pedagogical study of the motion picture. Volumes had been written of it as an art, and as a commercialized amusement. But as a schoolroom performer, its operation and effects were un-

PREFACE xi

known. It was, therefore, a logical step to create special school officers to handle the new aids, and special societies to discuss them. Experimental studies were instituted by teachers, with parallel classes of children. A systematic search developed for really educational films, and the attempt was made to establish standards. Interesting data on these pedagogical aspects of the film have accumulated in a relatively short time. It is the purpose of this book to bring to the attention of the teachers generally, the constructive methods that have been worked out in teaching film lessons to children, and to select and arrange in convenient "libraries" according to school subjects, the best of the educational films available.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

The great place which the moving picture has secured in the life of the world has resulted in innumerable discussions of its importance in connection with education. When millions of people are viewing moving pictures every day of the year there must be serious effects of an educational character whether the films which they are seeing are good, bad or indifferent. The wide spread of moving pictures including almost all conceivable subjects, has inevitably resulted in the production of many which have, distinguishable from those whose purpose of observation is purely for amusement and relaxation, definite educational values.

For some time the problem of how to make use of moving pictures in connection with a definite curriculum of study has been under consideration by the educational profession. Tentative experiments looking towards their incorporation as a part of the procedure of the school have been made in many school systems. Here and there generous appropriations for the organizing and maintaining of departments of visual education which make large use of the moving picture have been secured. The city school superintendents have shown a very open mind towards the whole problem and in many cases have evidenced their real enthusiasm in efforts looking towards a more serious and

xiii xiv EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

scientific use of this instrument of learning in their school system.

It was inevitable, however, on account of the mushroom-like rapidity with which this new industry has developed, that the problem of selecting and securing suitable films became serious. Many films advertised as educational, upon examinations seemed to be utterly unsuited in every way to use in public schools. Not infrequently superintendents have become discouraged after spending, to them, rather large sums of money by finding that much of this expenditure had been wasted.

On the other hand, during this same period, on account of a steadily increasing seriousness on the part of many moving picture producers, there has been a steady accumulation of films of genuine educational merit which when properly analyzed may be utilized in public school systems to the finest advantage. The question as to the practicability of seriously incorporating the motion picture into formal educational work became sufficiently important to justify the granting by the educational committee of the Commonwealth Fund of a sum of money to be used for the purpose of making a scientific study of educational motion pictures. The results of this study, while tending to overthrow some of the claims made by the more enthusiastic advocates of the moving picture in education, confirmed a growing conviction of editors that, properly used, many films could constitute a most invaluable supplement to other more conventional types of learning. The realization that an immense body of suitable visual educational material was available with-

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xv

out it being within the power of the ordinary superintendent to know just how to go about the proper selection of this material, and the scientific determination of the very real educational value of suitable educational films, has led the author to prepare this volume. He has undertaken in addition to a consideration of the value of the motion picture film as a teaching instrument, to organize as comprehensive a list as possible of the various films which may be secured either by purchase or rental. These lists of films are prepared in such a way that some notion as to their availability can be secured although the number of the films listed is so great that any estimate or critical description has been impracticable. It is our belief that school superintendents throughout the country will find this an invaluable hand book and that through its study and use the effectiveness of the motion picture as an educational agency may be greatly increased. Without any question each year will witness an increasing use in our public schools of films. Without proper guidance great waste of money and pupils' time may result. With a careful, intelligent guidance on the part of those responsible for the selection of films and their proper correlation with the other organized activities of the school, w 7 e will see a real step forward in educational efficiency.

C. E. Chadsey

Part I The Motion Picture Film As A Teaching

INSTRUMENT

CHAPTER PAGE

I Educational Films — Types and Uses ... 3

II Three Film Libraries for the Course op Study 20

III Descriptive List of Films in the Libraries . . 37

IV Analysis of the Film Libraries by Subjects of

Study 68

V Six Sample Film Lessons ....... 85

VI A Tentative Plan for a Motion Picture Lesson 146 VII Three Important Studies on the L t se of Educational Films 162

VIII A Score Card for Judging Values of Informational Pictures 197

IX State and City Centers of Distribution of

Educational Films ........ 208

X The Future of Educational Films .... 220

PART II COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF EDUCATIONAL FILMS (With Descriptive Notes)

Bibliography 433

Appendix ; . 439

Index 443 xrii

ILLUSTRATIONS

Lincoln — From the Son of Democracy Frontispiece

Facing Page

Scene from "Nanook of the North" 4

Igloo in "Nanook of the North" 4

The Same Pictures shown on both widths of film (exact

sizes 13

Scene from "Eve of the Revolution," in the Yale Chronicles

of America Photoplays 36

Scene from "Dixie," in the Yale Chronicles of America

Photoplays 36

Still from "Our Children" a film produced by U S. Children's

Bureau 45

Scene of Outdoor Storage at Darien Port, Manchuria,

from "Thru the Open Door of Manchuria" 52

This ant is upholding 3,000,000 times its own weight . . 61

Two scenes from "Our Six-Legged Friend" 61

Scenes from "Manufacture of ARMCO Ingot Iron" .... 64

Scenes from "Conquest of the Forest" 68

Scene from "A Woolen Yarn" 77

Scene from "Milk as Food" 99

Dr. J. J. Weber, Author of "Comparative Effectiveness of

Visual Aids" 164

Professor Frank N. Freeman, University of Chicago . . . 173

Scene from "Yellowstone National Park" 213

Charter Members National Academy of Visual Instruction

at University of Wisconsin . 220

W. H. Dudley, Chief of Bureau of Visual Instruction,

University of Wisconsin 220

Motion Picture Studio, U. S. Department of Agriculture . 228 The dance at the husking bee — Scene from "The Corn-Belt

Derby," U. S. Department of Agriculture 237

Scene from "Saddle Journey in the Clouds," Castle Films . 260 Camera man of the Canadian Government Motion Picture

Bureau preparing to take scenes for the film "In the

Wake of Captain Cook" 269

Facing Page pulling cable ashore at havana — scene from "making

Telephone History" 308

A Weather Bureau meteorologist making a "dust count" from a dirigible balloon, as shown in the U. S. Department of Agriculture film, "Exploring the Upper Air" 317

Scene from "The Covered Wagon," Famous Players -Las ky

Corporation 376

The 17-year locust — Scene from D it mar's Living Natural

Beavers — Scene from Ditmar's Living Natural History . . 418

Art Title from the De Vry film — "American Indians and

Their Ancestors" 422

Scene from "Regional Geography" (Grand Canyon of the

Colorado) . 427

The Antlers of the Elk are shed each Spring — Scene from

Ditmar's Living Natural History 427

Camera Men of the Canadian Government Motion Picture

Bureau, Ottawa, Canada 431

A veritable "slow motion" picture of a glacier "In Action" — Scene from "Leaves from a Ranger's Notebook," Motion Picture Bureau on Canadian Government . . 431

A fishing drama 436

PART I

THE MOTION PICTURE FILM AS A TEACHING INSTRUMENT

CHAPTER I EDUCATIONAL FILMS— TYPES AND USES Terminology

What is meant by the term Educational Film?

It is not strange that so new a product suffers some confusion in nomenclature. In theatrical circles all short subjects, as distinguished from dramatic features, are frequently called "educationals." Comedies are excepted. But scenics, news weeklies of whatever description, novelty reels, and advertising reels are all included.

An annoying instance of the loose use of the word, "educational," was referred to in a recent issue of the Educational Screen:

THAT WORD "EDUCATIONAL"

Carl Sandburg, the distinguished motion picture reviewer for the Chicago Daily News, in the course of some remarks on an "educational comedy/' deplores the fact that the Educational Film Exchanges, Inc. exploits the term "educational" for comedies and short subjects that have no claim to the adjective.

Mr. Sandburg said something. The name "Educational" has long since ceased to be a descriptive term for the typical productions of that excellent company. The name has been a thorn in the flesh of the non-theatrical world for several years. We should think it would be similarly annoying to theatrical exhibitors, and especially to their audiences at seeing these pleasant absurdities on the screen bearing the familiar legend —

EDUCATIONAL PICTURES

"The Spice of the Program"

All "Edueationals," in the accepted meaning of the term, suffer from this burlesque — and the whole field is kept busy explaining to disappointed schools and churches the unfortunate implications of the name. The Educational Film Exchanges, Inc. should either change their name or their product.

In practice, things are named from their dominant purpose or use. It is obvious that nearly every theatrical motion picture will convey information of some sort about life and customs, but we do not, therefore, call a Mae Murray film educational. Those films should be included in the term "Educational," that are predominantly educational. "Nanook of the North," a theatrical film, is nevertheless one of the best of the educationals ; most scenics and industrials might be permitted to bear the label. These can properly be called "general educationals." Where the educational film is designed for purely instructional purposes and is made by educators for educators, the term "classroom film" or "text film" has been suggested. The word "text," however, is not to be understood as implying that the film is designed to take the place of a textbook, but only as an illustration to the textbook — a moving picture supplement to the text. Neither the textbook nor the text film is of much value unless the teacher is present to see that they are properly presented and used — and that the critical follow-up work takes place.

Examples of the modern text or classroom film are Bray's "Elements of the Automobile' 1 (12 reels); "Secrets of Life" Series, Tolhurst; Ditmar's "Living Natural History"; "How Life Begins" — microscopic studies by Charles F. Herm; Wythe's "Citizens in the Making"; and the series of technical films on anatomy produced at the University of "Wisconsin. A large list of such films is given in Part II, Comprehensive List of Educational Films (with descriptive notes).

The term "Propaganda Film" embraces a large group of educational films designed to aid some "cause" or business, and constructed to appeal to popular audiences. The term and the product sprang into prominent use during the war. Most of the Government war films were of this character ; also some of the Department of Agriculture films, but many of these are of such scientific and pedagogical value as to deserve classification among the text films. The National Health Council, the American Eed Cross, Y. W. C. A., Boy Scout, International Harvester Company, General Electric Company and hundreds of advertising reels come under this classification. Such films vary greatly in pedagogical value, and need close inspection prior to use in the classroom.

Text Films to Accompany Textbooks

This book has one advantage in the field of visual education. It has set out a clear field for itself. It deals with films alone — not with slides, stereographs, press pictures, museum exhibits, or projection machines. And among the films it limits itself, with few exceptions, to classroom or text films in the Film Libraries, arranged to illustrate the course of study.* Semi-dramatic productions, and miscellaneous films combined in "programs" for the school assembly, to be shown to masses of children of varying grades assembled for the purpose — on special occasions or for the "auditorium period" in schools under the platoon system — are both too long and too varied in character for serious classroom study conducted under the rigid requirements of the daily time schedules.

The "Assembly Room" Type of Film

It was natural that films, at first, drifted out from the theatres into the schools ; and this type of general educational, semi-entertainment film program is still of value on occasion. But such occasions are not the subject matter of this book. The films discussed here are the every day, informational type of films for classroom use, having much the same functions as the illustrations in the textbook, with the added action, size, color, illumination and intensity which the screen image has over the book picture. On the one hand, the

* Bulletin 8 (1924) by the author, U. S. Bureau of Education, page 27, suggests the following classifications for films used in educational institutions :

( 1 ) "Text films," meaning those used to definitely illustrate the text in class instruction;

(2) "General education," when the material is fairly educational, but not used specifically for a class topic; and

(3) "Entertainment," where that is the obvious use and purpose.

text film does more than the illustration in a book, as it compels attention to pictures and the text relating to it, in a manner impossible to books. On the other hand, it cannot be so easily and repeatedly consulted as the textbook picture.

Trivial Use of Pictures

Miss Edith Putnam Parker and Mr. Barrows have called attention in a new geographical series (Silver, Burdett & Co.) to the almost trivial use that is usually made of pictures in a text. The pictures in a text are not studied ; they are glanced at, and almost instantly abandoned for the real study material in the text itself. Whereas Miss Parker and Mr. Barrows have shown that the picture is as much a proper subject of serious study as the text. It should be accompanied with directions, notes, questions and "layout" commensurate with its importance.

The picture has undoubtedly gained a new importance generally from the motion picture version; and though the frequent banalities of the theatre screen cast some doubt on the importance of pictures to the mental life, we know this is not the fault of the medium, but of the box office.

Three Film Libraries for the Curriculum

In Chapter II, three short film libraries using classroom or text films are outlined for use with a typical American school course of study. They are the results of years of investigation and trial. Most of the films have been tested by the author ; others have been selected on the recommendation of educators on whose judgment he relies.

They are put down in this outline form for the sake of definiteness, and to make it easy for school people who have little time to study the question to go ahead and make a start, feeling sure that somebody else has made a careful and practical study for them.

The Film Libraries Only Suggestive

But from every other standpoint, the film libraries can be taken only as suggestive — only as nuclei, from which each school system may create its own film course, either at first, or after a year's trial of the outline. It is obvious, for instance, that the various free and rental films given as substitutes for the regular numbers, may be so used, or they may be used in addition to the regular reels, thus doubling or trebling the number of reels in the various courses. Or reels may be freely chosen from the Comprehensive List of Educational Films (Part II), as practically all of these are suited for classroom use, many of them equal or superior to those in the outline.* To cite all the reasons why this or that film was finally included in the regular outline would be tedious and unnecessary. Matters of cost, availability and knowledge of particular films were usually involved.

* Except most of those given in Part II under Literature, which are frequently too long and dramatic for classroom use, and are listed mainly for reference for those teachers who want to know the films that use standard literary works as backgrounds.

Moreover, because city courses of study are not uniform as to the year in which particular subjects and topics are taken, each teacher or supervisor will have to switch the films somewhat to suit the degree of divergence from the typical course followed in the outline. Many of the films can be used in grades not specified, where the teacher is careful to select the appropriate scenes, and to fit her recitation plan to the grade in question.

Film Libraries for Varying Pocketbooks

A real effort has been made to suit the pocketbooks of small systems that have but little money to invest in films, but would still like to get a start at visual instruction. Both free and rental reels are suggested as substitutes for purchase reels, and where rental reels are written into the course, free reels are frequently offered as substitutes.

These substitutes, however, are suggested as only a temporary expedient. If the means are available for getting the purchase and rental films of the libraries, school systems should take them as they are, without substitutes, as most of the library films are supplied by the producers with synopses and teachers' notes, and the films written into the outline usually represent a better correlation with the school course of study than do the substitutes.

Most small systems starting the work will find that the Eighty Reel Unit, or two films per week, will answer their needs for the first year. The Forty Reel

10 MOTION PICTURES FOB INSTRUCTION

Library contains an average of only one per week for the school year, the Eighty Reel Library, two per week, and the One Hundred and Twenty Reel Library, three per week.

While from the standpoint of small towns these may seem like a large number, it should be remembered that this number provides only about a half dozen reels for a grade during the year. But if this should appear too inadequate a service, reflect that the class should nearly always see each film more than once, and that other grades than the ones set down may see the film to good advantage at the time it is in the building, if it contains material relating to their lessons. Large cities that already have generous budgets for visual instruction, and, therefore, film libraries of hundreds of subjects will find the number of films indicated here quite inadequate for their purpose, but even so, the particular films listed may prove suggestive. The film practices of some of the larger cities are described at some length in Chapter VIII.

In fact, free and rental reels will have to be arranged for several days' use, so as to allow for second showings and also to complete the circuit of the other schools in the system, that are at or near the same topic in the curriculum ; the purchase reels can be used whenever and wherever they are wanted — which emphasizes the real advantage of each school system gradually acquiring a film library of its own.

Most of the purchase reels in this series are accompanied with teachers' leaflets, giving additional facts concerning the topics in the reels, and suggestions for teaching.

A Director of Visual Education

From the time the school system starts visual instruction, it should appoint a director of visual instruction to care for and distribute the slides, films, machines, and other apparatus of the course ; the films should be ordered far enough in advance, and each teacher should be notified when the showings are to be made, and should receive in advance the synopses and notes accompanying the films that are to be supplied.

The ideal prerequisite to a classroom film showing is for the teacher to have an opportunity to see the film before the children do, so she can select the parts for emphasis or slight treatment, and frame her questions and follow-up work accordingly. But unless the teacher can run the machine herself it requires twice the amount of time from the operator ; a good plan is for each room in the upper grades to have one boy or girl who has been trained to thread and operate the projector. * Learning to do this is a simple matter of an hour 's instruction, and the running of several practice reels through the machine.

In one system, reported to the author, the teachers assemble at the beginning of the school year, and once a month during the year at a designated time to view the group of films for the coming months, synopses of the films are distributed and as the pictures are reeled off, the teachers have the opportunity of making any notes they may desire.

* For this and other reasons (see Appendix) a portable projector is recommended for school use.

A committee on visual instruction, one member for each main subject of study, should be appointed to fit the film course to the local textbooks and outlines, and to help teachers plan their work. The superintendent should recommend a budget for the rental and purchase of materials, and for the proper compensation of the director. Older students, as well as teachers, can be trained to rewind and inspect the film after each showing, and to operate the portable motion picture projectors.

Film Correlations Only Partial

The correlation suggested for each reel has been made on the basis of its principal content. Not every scene in each is equally well adapted to the related topic. A more perfect correlation could be secured if the teacher or school committee should select just the illustrations desired, in short lengths, from classified catalogues of film negatives, and have prints made to order in any length. It is the only way to avoid waste of time and footage and build up a permanent library of motion picture illustrations, every foot of which is germane to the topic for which illustration is desired. There are few such catalogues in existence, however, and their contents are chiefly of interest to theatrical producers. Bray Productions Inc., New York City, and the DeVry Corporation, Chicago, will make short prints to order from their extensive collections of educational film negatives.

Simple motion picture hand cameras, requiring no tripod nor cranking, are now on the market and can b*>

35 mm. him 16 mm. film

The Same Pictures Shown ox Both Widths of Film (Exact Sizes)— p. 15 made indispensable adjuncts to any visual instruction department, as they enable the amateur to take his own motion pictures of many subjects that are available in his own school or locality.

Only those cameras using the full theatre size (35mm.) film, however, take pictures that can be shown direct in theatres and standard portable projectors found in the majority of schools.

All Films Are of Standard Width

Only films of the standard width (35 mm.) adopted early in the history of the industry, by the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, are reco m mended for the three film libraries outlined in this book, or listed in the Comprehensive List of Films in Part II. The reason is the obvious one of making available to the schools the best films of all the world. Any other width film adopted would limit the schools to a very small fraction of the world's film production.

In February 1925, at a meeting of the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association it was announced that Mr. George Eastman of the Eastman Kodak Co., had offered to co-operate with the N.E.A. Committee on Visual Education in a production of a series of moving pictures on narrow width film to be produced for classroom work. The Eastman Kodak Company manufactures a camera and motion picture projector both of which take 16 mm. film. The Company secured the co-operation of the Visual Education Co mmi ttee which selected the following ten cities in which to try out the film for two years : Eochester, Detroit, Chicago, Kansas City, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Springfield or Newton, Mass., Atlanta, Winston- Salem. The films will be for the fourth, fifth and sixth grades and the junior high school, and will illustrate the following subjects: Geography, Health and Hygiene, Civics, Fine and Practical Arts, and General Sciences. We are not told the number of films that will be produced for this purpose but are informed that the Eastman Kodak Company mil furnish their Kodascope Motion Picture Projector and all 16mm. films necessary for the experiment. The 16 mm. prints however, will be made from standard size (35 mm.) negative. An enterprise of this kind financed by one of the richest business firms in this country ought to produce evidence which will determine the comparative values of standard and off-standard films and projectors in public school work. We will have to wait two years before a report is made on the work accomplished.