Lectorial: Somewhere between a lecture and a tutorial

I don’t know what I was expecting for my first ever class at university, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out what a “lectorial” actually entailed. The nature of a lectorial means that while much like a lecture, there is someone standing out the front with a powerpoint explaining the concepts to be discussed in the session, the smaller class size means that it easier for us students to contribute ideas. However being larger than a tutorial means that all the media students are together in the one room, which is something I quite like.

Besides covering the basic structure of the course, the main focus of the session was on deep and hyper attention. Often people of my generation are criticised for our need to be constantly stimulated due to growing up in a world in which we’re surrounded by technology and media, encouraging hyper attention over deep attention. And perhaps this is a fair criticism. However what I enjoyed about the way in which the topic was approached was that the focus was on how to solve the problem and engage the new generation of students, rather than simply blaming technology for “dumbing us down” and making us “lazy”, as we so often hear.

I believe the lectorial has the potential to assist with the problem faced by universities of engaging students who tend towards hyper attention. While I have only attended one so far, I found it to be enjoyable and interesting. I felt comfortable and very much at home with the other students, which in turn encouraged me to share my opinion with the class, rather than allowing my thoughts to drift off elsewhere. I left the room feeling as though I was in the right place and as though I instantly belonged.