THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. TUESDAY, 10th DECEMBER, 1929. MODERN AIDS IN EDUCATION.

Waipa Post, Volume 39, Issue 3087, 10 December 1929, Page 4

THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. TUESDAY, 10th DECEMBER, 1929. MODERN AIDS IN EDUCATION.

ONE of the most significant of recent movements in education is the marked progress which attends the efforts of those who seek to shape the kinema and the wireless into useful instruments for assisting in the instruction of youth. Up to the present the New Zealand authorities have for the most part been content to scrutinise the experiments which have been made along these lines in other countries. In view of the enormous and ever increasing cost of education this has been considered the most expedient course, but the time will soon come when these modern aids in education can be neglected no longer in this Dominion. The Tourist Department has long ago realised the value of the kinema for publicity purposes. It utilises it on a considerable scale. The natural objections to the use of purely visual or purely; auditory instruments in educational procedure have been met by the talking film, and in the near future it may be possible to synchronise television picture with the loud speaker. Considerable improvements are to be expected along both these avenues of development. It is generally admitted that, from the financial point of view, the so-called educational film, as screened in the picture house has been a comparative failure. Attempts have been made in many countries to gauge the degree of popularity of instructional films among school children, and, although the results vary somewhat, the position of these films on the scale of popularity is usually not high. The conclusion clearly is that “for educational purposes the element of popular appeal must be subordinate to the instructional objective,” as Dr C. W. Kimmins observed in his presidential address to the section on Educational Science at the last meeting of the British Association. Under the aegis of the educational authorities, however, the improved speaking film should form a valuable instructional medium. Important research undertaken recently by Professor Spearman, at his psychological laboratory at University College, London, has shown that the moving picture holds an advantage of about 20 per cent over the static picture or lantern slide. Groups of children from neighbouring schools were instructed in various ' subjects by these means, and the result ascertained by Professor Spearman was obtained from both immediate and delayed memory tests. In England and some Continental countries many schools have during the year made use of broadcast material as part of the general scheme of instruction. The initial difficulties in reception and in distortion at the loud speaker have been sufficiently‘overcome. The control of the broadcasting to schools in England is in the hands of a central council, whose work is assisted by a subsidy from the trustees of the Carnegie Foundation. The council has wisely taken a broad viewof' Its function, and, ex-T pert lecturers in jects, it provida^^i|: i >*^iU'v^'^l.^.'t' , j the lecturers® - discuss quest®' give lists y®>i acter.. for®. ' „r., ‘ ‘t** - W»re\J