Is the Lecture Dead?
Posted by Michael Paskevicius | 7 Sep, 2010The latest of practice/technology deaths has been identified as the traditional academic lecture. I just finished watching the ALT-C Keynote "Don't lecture me" from Donald Clark which was delivered in...wait for it...lecture format! So we got a lecture from Donald on the fact that lectures were dead.
Donald does bring up some relevant (albeit obvious) points such as the ability for lectures to be boring, less engaging, and less interactive then other forms of teaching. The clip above from Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a poignant example of how bad they can be! I would agree with Donald when he states that teaching is undervalued at universities and I believe that teaching and the design of learning activities (and resources) must be emphasised, rewarded and celebrated.Donald makes reference to the teaching universities in the United States where teaching activity is the focus. Donald suggests that one can immediately sense a difference in the quality of teaching at these universities. It was suggested that academics who want to conduct research should be freed from the burden of teaching, that which they won't do with passion anyway, in order to focus solely on their research. A contentious issue I would think for university leaders who need to balance research agendas with teaching schedules.
An important consideration brought out in the Q&A session that followed was the fact that university spaces are built for lectures and often teaching spaces are not easily rearranged for other forms of activity. I hope we will be seeing much more flexible teaching and learning spaces in the near future.
I still like the lecture as a form of sharing ideas, prompting questions and providing behaviour for modelling. There is something special about an inspiring lecture. Consider some of the notable TED talks as an example. I would agree with Donald that universities should be recording and sharing inspiring lectures whenever possible.
Check the Alt-C twitter conversation for more commentary on this keynote.
Good points...and as a long-time lecturer, I am increasingly questionning my activities during "lecture time".
What is lecture time FOR? Given the technological sophistication level of students these days, their time is increasingly better spent doing other things than listening to didactic expositions of knowledge in a theatre.
Consider: would that time not be better spent, to a large extent, getting away and getting to grips with the material - and then using lecturer face-time to actually ask an expert (for such we are supposed to be) what it means, rather than have him or her tell you what it means? Even with Powerpoint?
Posted by Ed Rybicki 09 Sep 2010, 12:00Thanks for your comment Ed! I am not sure why it did not appear in the moderate queue till now.
There was an idea proposed to me not too long ago; what if students watched/listened/read the lecture at home and came to class to do their homework? This way the content delivery portion could be stopped, rewound, re-listened to, using video or audio recordings and the students could collaboratively work through their understanding and interpretations in groups. Of course the lecturer would still play a crucial role in the classroom, moderating the learning, guiding the students toward resources, scaffolding where necessary, and asking the right questions.
Posted by Michael Paskevicius 30 Sep 2010, 08:30