A minor improvement on last week’s lecture, yet still somewhat the same
These lectures are slow changing. Every week something else is added to form the ideal ‘unlecture’, but at this rate the perfect ‘unlecture’ will be half complete in week 12. I’m still using ‘unlecture’ in apostrophise because I still think its a stupid name, and it is only just moved away from the standard lecture format.
So the format this week was answering 5 pre-determined questions from a class last week, and were answered by the four tutors (Brian’s back!). The problem is that they answered these questions sequentially. They didn’t bounce off each other. That’s why it still felt like a lecture. Yes, they responded to the questions, and we got input from each of them, but it was still extremely formal.
Adrian was chairless and hence became the moderator of the lecture, asking the tutors to respond to the questions. Once they were done, Adrian would talk for the same amount of time that the three of them would talk for combined. I don’t have a problem with what Adrian says, but I like to get variety in what I’m hearing and the opinions that come out.
For this subject, we are spoilt with being able to alter what the lectures are and I don’t want to be critical of them each week, but when we were promised something or proposed another way of constructing a lecture, then I would hope that we’d get that.
What I want is a Q&A panel where the four tutors are equally seated and discuss questions from audience members. I want the lectures to be a panel that discuss, not respond to the questions and then move on. I want to see a conversation between the tutors or between students, which anyone can jump in a throw their ideas into the fold.
I was standing only because there isn’t a fourth chair, but please don’t assume that the pattern is set 🙂 Just stick your hand up. It can go in different ways very easily, as the responses between, for example, Brian and I did. We are currently ‘seeding’ questions in class because a) lots have made it plain that they feel shy asking in public, b) it becomes a glorified tutorial where the same 4 or 5 ask a question every week. We need a way for questions to be distributed, and this is one (only one) way.
That’s totally fine. The only reason I’m actually making these points is because we have the option to. It’s improving and I’m still interested in how it will evolve, that’s why I’m going each week.
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