In-Class Discussion Questions Films and Learning: How Far Did We Come, ? Thinking about Early Film Studies Hoban & van Ormer (1951) May & Lumsdaine (1958)

Questions to Guide Your Discussion What sorts of effects were films thought to have on learning? What was their view of the “best possible outcome” from using films? What can you tell about the quality of the films used in the research? Did the findings seem impressive or valuable to you? Were there special challenges in doing the types of research described?

And Some Further Questions… What differences do you see between how H&vO and M&L approached their questions? How might “utilization” issues have interacted with outcomes described? (Setting, mechanics, teacher variables, etc.) How did types of questions change in the 50 years leading up to Schmidt & Vandewater?

Collins & Halverson - Chs. 3-4 Do you agree with the skeptics? On which points more than others? Which barriers to technology’s integration into teaching/learning are most significant & why? How powerful is the culture of today’s schools in comparison to the power of technology to do things differently? What aspects of the “Development of American Schooling” were most surprising to you? To what extent do you agree with the “Demands of Schools” section? (pp )