The Army Uses Television To Teach Remotely – 1953
It may come as a surprise that remote learning via video / television goes back at least seven decades.
Television Takes To Classroom
New York: The U.S. Army Signal Corps is conducting experiments to test the merits of military instruction by television. This is a view of the nine television classrooms as seen from the control room in the rear of a theater on an army post. Another important adjunct in this field is the use of television for morale, special service, and public relations activities. 12/10/1953 credit: U.S. Army from United Press
What did these soldiers learn? Was it effective?
Who knows. It was probably top secret.
The global pandemic pushed kids out of classrooms into remote learning. The consequences of that decision will be felt for years. The academic and social skills damage has yet to be fully tallied. There are several million students and parents who would disagree with the conclusion that remote learning is as effective as in-person.
But it should not surprise you that the military was among the first to experiment with the remote learning. If it’s a new technology, the army probably wants it.
It’s reminiscent of George Carlin’s observation about the army possessing flamethrowers.
George Carlin:
Think for a moment about the concept of the flamethrower. Okay? The flamethrower. Because we have them. Well, “we” don’t have them, the army has them. That’s right. We don’t have any flamethrowers. I’d say we’re fucked if we have to go up against the army, wouldn’t you?
But we have flamethrowers. And what this indicates to me, it means that at some point, some person said to himself, “Gee, I sure would like to set those people on fire over there. But I’m way to far away to get the job done. If only I had something that would throw flame on them.” Well, it might have ended right there, but he mentioned it to his friend. His friend who was good with tools. And about a month later, he was back. “Hey, quite a concept!” WHHOOOOOOOOSSHHH!
And of course the army heard about it, and they came around. “We’d like to buy about five hundred-thousand of them please. We have some people we’d like to throw flame on. Give us five hundred thousand and paint them dark brown. We don’t want anyone to see them.”
