Abstract
EVERY improved facility of communication has profoundly affected civilisation. The telegraph and the telephone and the widening of their scope by radio waves have benefited mankind. In the Journal of the Franklin Institute for August, H. M. Wilcox points out that the latest outcome of science, the talking film, has many useful applications for social and educational purposes which are not yet fully recognised. For example, a test was recently conducted at the Teachers College, Columbia University, to find the relative values of private study and seeing and hearing a talking film. Certain highly technical aspects of the training of teachers were presented by a talking film which lasted twenty minutes. Half of a group of students attended this, whilst the other half were given the monograph from which the film was constructed to study for half a day, but did not see the picture. A subsequent examination showed that the former group attained considerably higher marks than the latter. The author also lays stress on the fact that the talking film can democratise education in much the same way as it has democratised the dramatic stage. The great teacher can be taken to students in the most remote districts, and material presented to them which hitherto has been available only for the chosen few.
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The Development and Use of Talking Films. Nature 130, 502 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130502b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130502b0