What is important in a lecture?
Is the critical thing that you need to be sitting close to someone so you can copy their notes when you wake up? Perhaps it's important for the lecturer to know who's listening? Maybe it's the only way to get people out of bed in the morning?
Of course none of these things is relevant: what's important is getting the facts, opinions and ideas of the lecturer aired to the learners. If they can ask questions that's good, too, but doesn't often happen. The OU knew that when it started recording lectures and airing them in the small hours.
Who knows how many of these broadcasts were watched by people in their pyjamas eating jam sandwiches and doodling on the cat? Did it matter?
The essential activity was getting the information across: all else was a diversion. Dr Bill Ashraf realised this in 2006 and brilliantly re-invented the lecture by looking at the need, the learners and the media.
Dr Bill Ashraf However, if you listen to what Judith Moritz says in this account you will see that she has
missed the point
What he did that was so clever was not the transmission of lectures to MP3 players but the follow-on activity of taking questions by text (neat) and then answering the whole audience in a blog (brilliant)!
He has preserved the essence of the lecture while not imposing an end when he walked out the theatre, but he has done far more than that. By using generation X friendly media he has started a dialogue with the students that is open-ended. Discussion and analysis of the ideas could go on indefinitely. He can refine and amplify the ideas dynamically in response to the text questions. He can clarify parts, offer alternative explanations and refute arguments. And he only has to do it once.
He has used the lecture as a launch-pad to start the learning not as a device to curtail it.
This is blended learning at its best. Simple, inspired and effective.
This is blended learning at its best. Simple, inspired and effective.
3 comments:
Hi Jenny,
Very interesting tecnique to highlight. Do you think that this sort of thing can work in a corporate environment? I wonder if this might be taking things to far!
Nina
You are right in that this particular solution might have limited applicability in a formal corporate environment - but it could still be useful.
What about, say, the roll-out of a new HR system?
A recorded walkthrough of the system would get people started. They could choose a time when it was quiet and suited them to listen.
As questions arose - not just from the presentation but as they started to use the system - they could be emailed to the expert (txts a stp 2 fr) and the answers shared in a blog for everyone to consult.
That sounds about right! I know that Sales teams in more and more companies are using live meeting in the first instance with new prospects. They can get a feel for the level of interest in their product without having to travel, sometime's hundreds of miles, to a meeting which might not be worth it!
We can apply this just as easily to training, save travel time and therefore time on the phone/in meetings. This is a powerful message to a Sales Director.
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