Pedagogical Principles of Educational Films. Historical Approach to its Origins

The educational use of modern media has always originated exciting expectations, debate and controversy. So it happened with the Cinema in the early twentieth century, when a passionate defense of its use in education took place. This work aims to study this debate. To do this it takes place a historiographical analysis that account for a far from negligible literature such as articles in specialist press or academic reports, insisted on the need of using the potential of cinema in the service of instruction, considering it as a useful tool for the country’s progress. If we analyze a sample of that literature, it is possible to follow the thread that leads along a historic route through which to discover the pedagogical principles that underpinned the phenomenon of educational films. Giner de los Ríos y Ortega y Gasset will be here two important cultural models.