Photo: Flickr
A lecture, according to Wikipedia is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. That’s how lectures have pretty much been since the time sages and gods gave sermons.
In real terms, for many school and college students, a lecture is an hour or two of simple world-weariness, and these days, an undisturbed time to play video games or send SMS. In b-schools, life and lectures are meant to be taken more seriously and possibly they are but if there is a mind-numbing lecturer up ahead, a bit of distraction on the laptop cannot be ruled out.
Harvard Business Schools case-method pedagogy has been one of inspiration and learning to many b-schools across the world and in a way is seen as an getaway from humdrum lectures. A few of the Indian Institutes of Management are following suit but that the case-study method is a sure-shot way to thought-provoking discussions is not too certain either. ‘Whether the lecture is the best way of teaching’ takes a curious turn in an Indian b-school class, where freshers rub shoulders with students with five years work-ex. The faculty speaks the same language to both.
And with technology infiltrating into a students life much faster than any others, learning through videos and audio files has also become routine. A student sitting in a class can possibly download faster and in a more entertaining manner (from a variety of sources) what the lecturer is trying to say in class.
We spoke to a couple of students and professors on whether they thought the lecture method is outmoded and most said that if the instructor presents what he/she has to say in a stimulating manner, even unadorned orations can command undivided attention. Instead of presenting their views in the traditional wordy article format, we decided to do it in the form of videos. We asked professors and students to shoot a video of themselves and send to us, while some we recorded. The audio on a couple of videos may be bit of an issue.
Below is what b-school faculty had to say?
And this what students had to say?
A couple of links on the subject:
http://www.masmithers.com/2011/03/11/is-lecture-capture-the-worst-educational-technology/
http://www.exed.hbs.edu/assets/Pages/video.aspx?videoid=199
http://712educators.about.com/od/lessonplans/p/lecture.htm
http://francisabey.hubpages.com/hub/Lecturing-Method-of-Training
http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/03/is-the-college-lecture-dead-dying-or-just-lying-low/
(The IIMI professor’s name is Siddhartha Rastogi and not Siddhartha Gupta and name of the last student is Ashish Bhagawat)