"Audio Visual Aids" Become Norm  − 1 January, 1940

Audio-Visual Aids to Instruction, a book authored by H.C. McKown & A.B. Roberts, was published in 1940.  This marked an era in which the now-familiar terms "audio visual," or "AV" had been newly coined even though their use had been in existence.  Since the 1920's The Department of Visual Instruction (DVI), an arm of the National Education Association; the Visual Instruction Association of America (VIAA); and the National Academy of Visual Instruction (NAVI) had formed professional allegiances with joint missions of effecting advances in educational practices, namely through the use of film and sound over traditional print-based teaching and learning.  The Educational Screen was a periodical published by the DVI, available with one's two-dollar membership dues to the organization.  According to DVI archives, "technological advances were contantly raising semantic challenges" (much as we see today!) so committees met regularly in the 1930's and 1940's to recommend terminology that would best describe innovativations in technology and instructional practices. 

Submitted by Li-Lee Tunceren

Source:  http://www.aect.org/About/History/consolidation.htm