Discusses the use of visual media as symbol systems that gather, package, and convey knowledge. Media's different and often unique symbol systems are looked at as potentially serving as cultivators of mental abilities. Forty-nine references are provided. (Author/CHC)

Teaching with films has largely been limited to the attainment of the simpler educational objectives such as factual and perceptual motor skills learning. Here is an attempt to define the characteristics of filmic communication in order that it may be applied to more complex educational aims. Language and filmic symbolism are compared to…