"Why is it that although as educators we largely understand that there are valid criticisms of the lecture format, that we continue to reproduce that format whenever we meet professionally?" Adeline Koh is here questioning the use of lectures as keynote addresses at conferences, and actually presents one where she has people do a literature exercise in small groups. It's one of a number of things (like backchannels, or self-defining communities) you can do. But as I read her post I was bothered by the fact that what she calls a DOOC (Distributed Open Collaborative Course) is actually just a cMOOC. I've commented on this before. Would I have detected this error (and yes, I think it's an error) had she simply given me some activities to do? Why I wouldn't have learned was this: should I hire her as a consultant? Should I trust her views on technology? If she were a student, should she graduate? When people give talks, they aren't just giving you a bunch of stuff to remember. There are many other purposes, and good lecturers know that.
We have to stop depicting education as though it were just a process where we get people to remember stuff. It's mostly not that.
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