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Take it a step further. Why bother recording lectures? The information is in books. Anyone who wants to know can learn it from a book.
> So your paying for your kid to sit in class to hear the same lecture that has been given thousands of times already
Since the knowledge is available in books, and (nearly) free- you pay for: (1) a defined program of study (2) evaluations (3) the ability to hang around with other students and eventually network with them (4) access to any lab facilities not readily available (5) a certification at the end of the program and (6) access to placement services.
None of this is really needed to learn; but most students need most of it.
Your comparing apples to oranges. A book is a book. A lecture is a lecture. A placement service is a placement service. I never advocated getting rid of or substituting those. A lecture is the exact same in person as on video.
Any time the syllabus is updated you would record a new lecture.
Yeah, but recording 16 or so lectures per class is a big undertaking, much more time and trouble than you seem to be considering. Plus professors generally like having the power to tweak their lectures according to what students are responding to... the only people in my experience actually giving the same lectures over and over every year are the ones who have been tenured for decades, don't really like teaching per se, and have, after much trial and error, come up with a set of slides they consider perfect. I think it could work for those people. but there is usually not so many of them.
The ones who like to teach like the interaction, enjoy telling jokes and whatnot... they won't want to tape anything.
I have to agree that these "huge" lecture classes are very limited--mainly to huge colleges for a few general ed classes...it's not the "model" for college classes and if you don't like those huge classes, find a different college. My kids' biggest class is 60 students, all of the rest of their classes are 25 or less. Our son has 2 classes with 10 kids in the class...
Your comparing apples to oranges. A book is a book. A lecture is a lecture. A placement service is a placement service. I never advocated getting rid of or substituting those. A lecture is the exact same in person as on video.
Nonsense. And I say that as someone who teaches in a 50/50 flipped classroom. I record more than 50% of my lectures. My kids watch them at home and we go into greater depth and breadth in class. They also USE the information in the lecture in class since that tends to be the "harder" skill and the one the benefit from my attention more on.
That being said, there just exist certain topics that cannot be taught well in video. These tend to be more difficult abstract topics that it is important for the teacher to get feedback on.
But the fact that you insist all lecture is pointless shows how little you actually know about teaching and learning.
Yeah, but recording 16 or so lectures per class is a big undertaking, much more time and trouble than you seem to be considering. Plus professors generally like having the power to tweak their lectures according to what students are responding to... the only people in my experience actually giving the same lectures over and over every year are the ones who have been tenured for decades, don't really like teaching per se, and have, after much trial and error, come up with a set of slides they consider perfect. I think it could work for those people. but there is usually not so many of them.
The ones who like to teach like the interaction, enjoy telling jokes and whatnot... they won't want to tape anything.
I'm not sure what you are saying "recording 16 lecture per class." You record one lecture per class subject and distribute it to everyone who signs up for the class. The "perfect" lecture is the one that is kept and used. All the more reason to do it this way.
Nonsense. And I say that as someone who teaches in a 50/50 flipped classroom. I record more than 50% of my lectures. My kids watch them at home and we go into greater depth and breadth in class. They also USE the information in the lecture in class since that tends to be the "harder" skill and the one the benefit from my attention more on.
That being said, there just exist certain topics that cannot be taught well in video. These tend to be more difficult abstract topics that it is important for the teacher to get feedback on.
But the fact that you insist all lecture is pointless shows how little you actually know about teaching and learning.
You teach, and you can't even read and comprehend my posts? Scary. I didn't say lectures "were pointless." I said not at least having large lectures is pointless. I said that giving the same one individually to 1000's of students separately in groups of 20 is pointless, when you can give it to them all at once from the internet on video because a classroom isn't big enough for 1000's of students.
I'll make this even simpler to understand. Think online classes, except just the lectures are online.
I'm not sure what you are saying "recording 16 lecture per class." You record one lecture per class subject and distribute it to everyone who signs up for the class. The "perfect" lecture is the one that is kept and used. All the more reason to do it this way.
There are about 16 lectures per semester for a once a week class.
I don't think you've ever tried to teach a class, or record and edit an hour and 15 minute video. You have no idea what it takes to make a lecture "perfect".
All I'm saying is this is not as much of a solution as you think it is.
You teach, and you can't even read and comprehend my posts? Scary. I didn't say lectures "were pointless." I said not at least having large lectures is pointless. I said that giving the same one individually to 1000's of students separately in groups of 20 is pointless, when you can give it to them all at once from the internet on video because a classroom isn't big enough for 1000's of students.
I'll make this even simpler to understand. Think online classes, except just the lectures are online.
Reminder OP
Title of the thread "How education is delivered is moronic and why college costs so much". So really you shouldn't be talking about reading comprehension when you gave such a poorly worded title.
Next,
"A lecture is a lecture. A lecture is the exact same in person as on video."
YOUR WORDS. Actually the ones I quoted. And I explained exactly why that is not true. Even in a lecture with a hundred students it is possible to get feedback you cannot get back from a video. That is a fact.
"There is no added value in doing it over and over again.
From your OP, I am telling you as a teacher there is added value because many of us, actually interact with our students, even when in large classes.
I rewrite 80% of my lectures every year. My field (Geography) changes dramatically from year to year. With the amount of effort it takes to adequately record and serve a lecture ahead of time, I would be far better off just giving my lectures live and recording them for reuse that year. Most of them will be useless to me the following year.
There is far from uniformity in lectures too, even at the entry level. When I was in grad school, I ended up TAing the same class with three different professors. Each of them had a completely different take on the lectures; even fundamental concepts have disagreements on how to interpret and present them. Recording a single lecture, even for an entry level class, means missing that diversity of viewpoints too.
Any time the syllabus is updated you would record a new lecture.
I am required to update all of my syllabuses every year. Has to go through a review committee, and I have to justify any lectures that I don't change.
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