Comments on: Is there anybody there?

By: Peter Rainger

Peter Rainger — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:03:44 +0000

In response to faster listen speeds, it does indeed depend on the quality of the recording and the clarity of the lecturers presentation. You would be supprised at the ammount of time wasted on um, ahs and breaks in speech why presenters fiddle with their paperwork or laptops. Listening online allows learners to speed pass their points. Listening to presentations at higher than normal speeds takes a little practice but you can become adapt at it; students with visual impairment who use text-to-speech often listen to material at high speeds (if they have auditory learning preference). I myself often find listening to speakers I want to find the speed-up button! But also the counter option is true as if there are difficult concepts you can go back and play one section as many times as you like until it clicks without embrasement – which can support dyslexic or VI learners.

By: Adam Cooper

Adam Cooper — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:46:06 +0000

This debate rather gets to the heart of the teaching-or-learning distinction. My father began teaching many years ago and was most impressed by the following, which he passed on to me (paraphrased):

Lecturer A: How come the students still don’t know about X, I taught it to them last week.
Lecturer B (a wise one): There is no teaching without learning; you clearly did not teach it last week.

Attendance is a surrogate for participation from the perspective of delivery. Clearly we need better measures in an age when attendance is not necessary for participation. And participation is only a surrogate for… LEARNING. An adherence to obsolete regulatory requirements such as attendance seems sure to alienate learners and (maybe rather quickly) lead to certain educational institutions becoming irrelevant.

I also wonder why we have a focus on teaching quality assessment rather than learning quality assessment. This seems to favour orthodox methods rather than outcomes. OK, learning is complex and we will always need surrogates of some kind but maybe its time to move on from conformity to tradition.

By: Tweets that mention Rowin’s blog » Is there anybody there? -- Topsy.com

Tweets that mention Rowin’s blog » Is there anybody there? -- Topsy.com — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 20:18:00 +0000

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by TechSmith, Jordan Skole and TechSmith Education, Martin Hawksey. Martin Hawksey said: Liked post by Rowin Young at JISC CETIS summarising discussion on INSTTECH list on impact of lecture capture http://bit.ly/b5P8yf […]

By: Jordan Skole

Jordan Skole — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:13:40 +0000

This article is extremely relevant to us at MSU as we begin developing an open-ed model of education. We are offering ALL the material online using a creative-commons license, yet need to generate revenue, so how do we do so? Our answer is that the kinetic information gathered during spontaneous participation is where the added value from class attendance comes into play.

I always laugh because typically these attendance taking, card-swiping, professors are the econ ones telling us to let the market decide…

By: Joel Eaton

Joel Eaton — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:14:06 +0000

Hmmm…. In response to the student quote regarding listening at faster speeds, even particularly slow speakers are extremely hard to understand at 1.8x speed. At 1.6x speed a slow speaker can be understood but listening to what is essentially a chipmunk for a prolonged period of time whilst attempting to ingest information is definitely a challenge!!

By: JohnR

JohnR — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 11:36:25 +0000

Hi Rowin,

I’ve also been following the discussion, and am finding it fascinating – was you say much of the discussion is framed in terms of class attendance without reference to why absenteeism is in itself a problem, why lecture attendance is needed, or any consideration of the possible benefits to students of the extra availability of lecture content.

It has been really good, however, to see some people contributing with alternative models of teaching enabled by recording lectures (e.g. video lectures built on by classroom discussion/ activity).

However, the whole discussion thus far (as far as I can tell) is in the context of lectures put into VLEs for access by that cohort/ class. There seems to be a model at work that assumes restricted access and (for some at least) places the value of the course is purely in the lecture content/ transfer of large chunks of information. I’m not suggesting that institutions should necessarily agree with an OER approach but would have hoped for an appreciation of the benefits wider access within institutions, or through iTunesU.