1.6 TECHNOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY: EARLY AUDIOVISUAL SCHOLARSHIP

That the audiovisual scholars of the 20s and most of the 30s followed prevalent theoretical and methodological trends in educational psychology was a key step in the establishment of the field. The coin of the realm in the academy at this time was connectionism (behaviorism after Hull), mental measurements, and aspects of social efficiency. It was smart for these scholars to secure a berth for AV education by conducting psychological research. We are not suggesting that these were studied, deliberate moves on the part of AV scholars. Many of them were in and of the academy, and the culture of departments of education, especially in the 20s, was behavioral and experimental. We are also not suggesting that this culture did not gain academic status for departments of education, a status from which we still benefit. We do not contest the idea that before Thorndike, educational research in the United States was a helter-skelter affair.

We do suggest that connectionism, mental measurements, and social efficiency defined the dominant discourse in educational inquiry at a moment in time when the audiovisual field was emerging. We suggest that educational technology scholars have inherited a legacy, both fortunate and unfortunate. To start a field with the notion of the mind as a tabula rasa is unfortunate, because it is a concept ripe for imprinting and control. To trust that mental measurements are neutral and do not spring, originally, from a desire for control is naive. This issue was central for Thorndike and has been revisited recently by scholars such as Foucault (1977) and Curtis (1993), among others. Thorndike noted:

The science of education can and will itself contribute abundantly to psychology. Not only do the laws derived by psychology from simple, specially arranged experiments help us to interpret and control mental action under the conditions of schoolroom life. Schoolroom life itself is a vast laboratory in which are made thousands of experiments of the utmost interest to "pure" psychology (Thorndike, 1910).

1.6.1 Residuals

Practically speaking, the fields of educational psychology and technology have suffered from the limits imposed by either behavioral or richer theories of the mind subsumed under cognitivism. Limitations imposed by the study of a unit of one, the brain, in a social setting have taken a toll on both fields. This toll can best be described by the inordinate focus of scholars from these fields, for practically 3 decades, on minuscule instructional problems. The psychological models available to us, and their concomitant statistics, demanded study of microaspects of learning and instruction. (Some of this may be partially redressed in educational psychology by the appearance of constructivism.) But what has the study of microaspects of learning contributed to the field of educational technology as a whole? When we compare experiments of the 20s with those of the 60s or 70s, we note similarities, a proliferation of nonconnected, nonprogrammatic microstudies. What is different about the later studies and concerned many graduate students was appropriate statistical application, not how to formulate more relevant research questions. How can we account for what educational technology has taught us through the years?

The current shift of power in the academy away from educational psychologists may be partially explained by their lack of ability to address macro-problems of learning, in this period of national dissatisfaction with the enterprise of public schooling.

1.6.2 General Audiovisual Texts

In addition to scholarly texts of the early 30s, many general audiovisual texts were published. Two texts were widely circulated. They are Visual Instruction, Its Value and Its Needs (McClusky, 1932) and Motion Pictures in Education: A Summary of the Literature: Source Book for Teachers and Administrators (Dale et al., 1937). F. Dean McClusky had been a student of Frank Freeman's at the University of Chicago, but carved a career for himself, not as a scholar but as an administrator. In fact, he became an authority within the AV economic realm who was devoted to the advance of machines in the classroom. In the 20s he had conducted the Freeman Commonwealth Studies at the University of Chicago under the direction of Frank Freeman (Saettler, 1990) and written about the administration of AV programs and the preparation of teachers. His 1932 text is a summation of that work. Although he wrote articles and reports from the 20s until 1950, in keeping with the analysis here, we focus on his book Visual Instruction, Its Value and Its Needs (McClusky, 1932). Since his concerns were broad, his studies were surveys rather than experiments, and his style is not scientific. Structured survey research was in its infancy and was a method suited to claims for diffusion of innovation. He employs economic language such as supply and demand, profit, service motive, commercial efforts, competition, etc. (McClusky, 1932). In his book, he mixes economic arguments that were present in the oral vernacular of the early field but become central to general discussions in books such as McClusky's and administrative texts. McClusky has a delightful way of mixing professional esprit that we found so prevalent in the oral histories and sound administrative and economic advice about the field. (We looked forward to listening to Dr. McClusky's audiotape, but it was unclear.) This marketplace discourse, while not foreign to his audiovisual contemporaries, is prevalent in McClusky. His clear language and friendly authority were instrumental in starting the field.

Although not a textbook in the normal sense, Motion Pictures in Education: A Summary of the Literature: Source Book for Teachers and Administrators is written as a learning tool for researchers, teachers, and school administrators (the assumed students of visual instruction and educational motion pictures). It is a book consisting of six parts, each by a different author(s). Composed of annotated bibliographies of educational journal articles, books, and theses devoted to visual education from the mid-1920s through the mid-1930s, the text is arranged according to subject areas (administration of visual aids, teaching with visual aids- especially the motion picture, instructional materials selection, school film production, instructional films experimental research, and visual education teacher preparation). The authors summarize those materials they feel are most useful to their readers but do not evaluate these items. In addition, the authors assist their readers by adding editorial comments. Their hope is ". . . that this volume will acquaint the reader with the significant literature in the field, and will present information necessary to those who wish to be intelligent about the contribution of the motion picture to education" (Dale et al. 1937, p. 12).