“The Un-lecture” Numero Dos

I must admit, I was a bit of a skeptic in regards to how successful I thought the ‘un-lecture’ was going to be. The unconventional format seemed a bit far-fetched, radical and idealistic to me; you could say I’m a bit of a traditionalist.

I’m happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The question and answer format ensured that it was a much more enriching experience for both student and tutor, and I think it’s well suited to the subject content, as this doesn’t really fit into the “rope learning” subject typology, categorically speaking.

I did think, however, that the fact that we were forbidden to use laptops or any other form of electronic device during the lecture was a  bit ironic, considering the subject is media-centric. It was a good thing I bought along a notebook and a pen, otherwise I might’ve been left to memorise the lecture content like everyone else, which would’ve been a bit of an issue considering we’re required to write a blog post about the ‘un-lecture’ every week that contributes to our results.

I liked the idea of students as knowledge producers, as opposed to knowledge consumers. Constant and rapid consumption of information in no way implies knowledge – this is something I’ve come to learn as a student of the bureaucratic Australian schooling system. It’s one thing to consume information, and another thing entirely to conceptualise and consider this information, linking it to other concepts, and transforming its bytes into concrete understanding, in a way that enhances our intellectual repertoire.

As Einstein said,

“Information is not knowledge.”

He managed to sum up in three words what it just took me a paragraph to write. Succinctness is not my strongpoint. Oh well, we got there in the end.