Edgar Dale, Audio-Visual Education

Edgar Dale (1900-1985) was internationally renowned for his most famous breakthrough — the Cone of Experience — and its theory of the relationship between multimedia elements and the retention of memory through users. As a professor in Ohio State’s College of Education and Human Ecology from 1929 through 1970, he instructed students on how to utilize audio and visual materials. Dale also provided research contributions in areas of vocabulary and readability.

Dale once told Jeanne S. Chall, a PhD graduate student and a leading research innovator, “You cannot wait for ideas to come. You must work for them.” Today, instructional designers and scholars continue to build upon his teaching methods.