Interview with Thomas Edison, "The New York Dramatic Mirror", July 1913
“Books,” declared the inventor with decision, “will soon be obsolete in the public schools. Scholars will be instructed through the eye. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be completely changed inside of ten years.
“We have been working for some time on the school pictures. We have been studying and reproducing the life of the fly, mosquito, silk weaving moth, brown moth, gypsy moth, butterflies, scale and various other insects, as well as chemical chrystallization. It proves conclusively the worth of motion pictures in chemistry, physics and other branches of study, making the scientific truths, difficult to understand from text books, plain and clear to children.
“I do not think every home will have its own projecting machine, although the wealthier people will possess them, no doubt. The cheapness of film entertainment is due to its popularity among the many. The expenses per capita are extremely small. In a home the cost would be very great. The future will see motion pictures more or less in the home, while in clubs, in theaters and in motion picture houses they will be most popular.
(In really learning something, as opposed to just teaching imitation, it's not the technology, it's the human interaction.)
Onward through the fog.
Tom