Channel: David Hoffman

Category: People & Blogs

Tags: 1950s high school studentsdyslexia testteaching machine can replace teachers1950s teaching machinesaiai teaching machinesteaching machines robots1950s students1950s robotsteaching machine bf skinnerfeedback devices in educationteaching machine1950s educational videosteaching machines the history of personalized learningdavid hoffman filmmaker1950s educational filmsteaching machines skinner1950s educationeducation devicesdyslexia

Description: The concept of teaching machines has been around a while. The idea being that students could learn by themselves without teachers and that it might actually make things better. In the 1950s, teaching machines sounded like they were going to be a big deal and this "documentary" was made to help parents understand how they could help students learn better. In the 1950s, teaching machines became very popular as individual instruction devices and by 1959, they were considered one of the “hottest items among the nation’s self-education enterprises.” Teaching machines provided students with instant feedback, self pacing, and active responses. You will see timecode and the name MacDonald supered on this film clip. When I was collecting this material 40 years ago, MacDonald was the person that I went to because he had collected thousands of 16mm films. Unfortunately put his logo and timecode on all the clips he gave to me. He has passed on now but I still have these wonderful clips and this one fascinates me because being dyslexic, I needed machines As a high school student to help me learn how to read and not skip words. One of the machines taught me "speed reading". Basically skimming. I still do this today when I am reading an article in a magazine. More often than not, I get the gist of it but on occasion, I get it completely wrong. My subscribers know that I oftentimes misspell words because of my dyslexia.