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ODERN SOCIETY IS CHARACTERIZED by a high degree of technological sophistication. The take-off point for our present rate of development was the industrial revolution of the 19th century. Since that time productivity has increased through the progressive application of a series of innovations in method, machinery, communications, and automation. These innovations are the result of extensive research and development and are directly responsible for the material affluence of our present society. In education, an increase in productivity has been neither the goal nor the result of our efforts during this period. Correspondingly, education has not been characterized by technological innovation. Only in the last decade have we turned to technology for systematic support of instruction, and only very recently have we begun to develop communications systems tailored to educational specifications rather than merely seeking classroom adaptations of the by-products of industry.

A technology of instruction, as any technology, will be a complex activity involving people, materials, machines, systems, and patterns of organization. Its application will involve, among many other things, the work of specialists stationed at all levels throughout the educational system. Without question, it also means changes in the school curriculum, in the role of the student, the role of the teacher, and in the programs of teacher education.

Education is a matter of individual human growth and development; therefore technological methodology must be introduced with care. Our primary concern is and must be the individual human personality-the nurturing of social and moral values, and, perhaps more to the point in our case, the development of rational thinking, of intellectual competence, of responsible action, and of productive ability. Such development involves the transmitting (teaching) and mastering (learning) of a great deal of information and many complex skills. The degree to which technological media and systems can extend the efforts of professional workers in this endeavor is a matter of extreme timeliness and a major concern of the Task Force.

That films, TV, electronic learning laboratories, programed materials, graphic displays, and similar media can enhance learning and extend the range of a good teacher is an established fact. That expanded development of such media in coordination with curriculum can further contribute to both productivity and quality in instruction is a reasonable assumption. To bring about this expansion and to direct the effort in a manner consistent with our goals and our understanding of how children grow and learn is a challenge to the entire profession.

Only recently have we begun to discover the philosophical framework or the modes of application which seem to make the extensive use of technological media appropriate to education. This framework has been constructed through painstaking research and practice

widely reported in the professional literature. There must now be generated within the profession a desire to extend this capability.

American public schools have been under severe criticism during recent years. Some of the most vocal critics have not always demonstrated that they are in full possession of all the pertinent facts. However, it is not possible to gloss over all the charges or to wave them aside with indifference. The magnitude of the educational operation and its real significance is actually a concern for national survival.

One of the facts not fully comprehended is the dramatic increase in enrollment at every level. The mere provision of physical facilities in which to house this increasing number of students is a problem of impressive proportions. Equally as obvious, but not always sufficiently considered, is the problem of finding and educating an adequate number of teachers to meet these requirements. All available reports indicate that we are failing by substantial numbers to meet the demand for new teachers. An NEA study indicates that the average public-school teacher spends about 43 percent of her time on duties other than classroom instruction.

Added to the factors of increased enrollments and inadequate and over-burdened staffs is the rapidly expanding body of knowledge in every subject-matter field. Many examples could be cited to highlight the significance of this problem and the challenges it presents. Every area of teaching competence from physics through reading to individual counseling has advanced in scope and complexity within the last decade or so and promises to continue to do so in the years just ahead.

During the past 10 years, industry has developed automated random-access filing and other storage-retrieval systems to alleviate somewhat parallel problems. Schools, however, are almost wholly unaware of such approaches.

On other fronts American public school systems have been making great efforts to meet their problems. Perpupil expenditures have been increasing steadily and probably will continue to increase. The cost per pupil was slightly over $200 in 1950, while in 1960, just ten years later, it had risen to approximately $400. Most of the additional expenditure has been devoted (in increasing but inadequate amounts) to salaries, student services, additional classrooms, and finally, if funds remained, to equipment and instructional materials. As educational expenses continue to mount, the public can be expected to express increased concern. If we are to obtain satisfactory financial support, we must be prepared to show that every effort has been made to incorporate effective and efficient methods in our schools.

The examples of modern medicine, industry, and business which devote major attention to capital investment in tools and hardware, and to research and development, must give us pause. At the turn of the century, according to Harold Clark, Columbia University economist, both industry and education distributed its capital

outlay for new buildings in a ratio of three quarters for the shell of the building and one quarter for the tools to be used by the occupants. Today the ratio has been reversed for industry—a quarter for the building, three quarters for the tools-but the ratio for educational structures continues for the most part unchanged.

In 1958 the total capital outlay in education was $2.85 billion, mostly for construction. The investment in audiovisual equipment was about six tenths of one percent of this amount. We must now face the question of whether to continue this technological lag or to seek the strength for a really significant advance.

A technological culture, by definition, is one that finds technological solutions to its problems. This means that the environment of the technological culture which contributed to the problems of education also contains the elements that can help to solve them. Through the efforts of pioneering American educators working in cooperation with elements of the industrial and military communities, a body of knowledge and an arsenal of communication tools and materials have been developed with which we may begin to work. There has also been accumulated in the public school systems of the United States a limited body of experience in the application of technological devices and materials to instruction.

The time has now come to apply everything known about communication and learning to the problems of instruction in the public schools. A decision to take this step means a massive infusion of technological capital and personnel into the system as well as a massive program of research and development. It means the creation and application of a technology of instruction based on the sciences of learning and communication. In summary, a technological leap forward is required in education. The decision of any school system to attempt this leap must be made in relation to certain assumptions:

• Present instructional programs are inadequate to meet certain obvious needs of students who will grow up and work in the world of the 1960's and '70's.

A new technology for instruction has been developed and proved through basic research and practice. This development has now reached a level that will permit rapid expansion of application and of further innovation.

The new educational technology is capable of meeting and solving certain of the schools' major problems in instruction, organization, and administration.

• Application of the new technology will result in major changes affecting the administration, organization, and physical facilities of the public schools.

• Methods of instruction will be modified to a major degree, particularly in the presentation of information. • Teachers and learners will have new roles and changed activities as a result of this technological change.

⚫ A new kind of professional will be required to provide leadership in design, implementation, and evaluation of programs of education which make the fullest use of new media. The functions performed by this leader and the resources he brings will be among the essential determinants of success or failure in tomorrow's schools.

Learning occurs as a result of direct contact with things or manipulation of things; and as a result of vicarious experience through seeing, hearing, conversing, reading, thinking, and responding emotionally as well as intellectually. The teacher provides for these experiences and in so doing uses a variety of media. Educational media are defined here as those things which are manipulated, seen, heard, read or talked about, plus the instruments which facilitate such activity. Educational media are both tools for teaching and avenues for learning, and their function is to serve these two processes by enhancing clarity in communication, diversity in method, and forcefulness in appeal. Except for the teacher, these media will determine more than anything else the quality of our educational effort. Media Function No. 2

Some teachers have begun to utilize another channel for learning in which the media alone may present and, in a sense, teach certain content to pupils.

Here, the teacher determines objectives, selects methods and content, and evaluates the final learning outcomes. The presentation of information, and even the direction of routine pupil activities, may be turned over to such new media as programed learning materials, television, or motion pictures.