After settling into a relatively workable manner of munching my food so as to remain as inconspicuous as possible during the lecture, as well as to satisfy my immense hunger – which would otherwise have made me fall asleep into a narcolepsy-like twitch-fest as usual – I tuned my ears into the lecture.
I was surprised. Yes, this lecturer’s fabulous attire was pleasing to the eye. But it wasn’t only this fabulous attire which both surprised and pleased me. It was that he could think.
Adrian understood the way that conventional teaching methods – formal, one-sided lectures and such – may, in fact, fail to aid learning. Or, at least, fail to aid thinking. And he expressed intention to try a change of tactic with us this semester. This was intriguing.
Except, at this point, I think Eddie came stumbling in late and decided to sit with us – which meant walking down to the very bottom of the steps and crossing to the furthest left part of the lecture theatre. I think this was literally the furthest point from the entry that he could have possibly achieved. Good one, Eddie.
Anyway, Adrian pointed out a number of interesting things.
He told us about his experience at university, comparing the “scarcity” of equipment then with our wealth of equipment and facilities nowadays. How the bulky, insanely-expensive video camera – an absolute rarity then – doesn’t even match up to the iPhone camera which, nowadays, almost everyone carries in their pocket. Yes, this did infuse a hint of gratefulness in my self-absorbed, Gen-Y attitude. Even though I don’t even have an iPhone… or a Smartphone… pfft, life. I think he said the video camera used then was worth $60,000? Whaaaaa? A RED camera can cost a quarter of that. AND THAT IS A FREAKING RED CAMERA. IT MAKES EVERYTHING LOOK PRETTY.
Adrian placed a lot of importance on this course being future-oriented. Or, on us being future-oriented. I can’t quite remember. I didn’t take notes. I was too enthralled in the actual lecture (yes, I’m actually serious). And eating my sandwich. But I do remember there being a lot of emphasis on the future. We were encouraged to think about why we were there. Why do the course? What will we get out of it? Why do the program? What jobs are likely to come out of this program? Why go to university? I was a little taken aback. This was because I couldn’t answer these questions with certainty. Yes, I know what I want to do. But will this course/this program/university help me get there? I don’t know.
Another thing that excited me about this lecture was Adrian’s resolve to make it a different environment from the conventional lectures with the very formal hierarchy – you know those ones where if someone coughs the lecturer will glare at them for 2 minutes straight and you have to drink some form of horribly caffeinated drink to stay awake and deal with the painful monotony and no one is encouraged to do or say anything except take down reams of notes that the lecturer dully ladles out like that gruel in Oliver Twist. Yeah, so I found the prospect of a new dynamic exciting – I mean, I could already tell it was going to be different from my other lectures, but for Adrian to explicitly confirm that was great.
What was just as exciting was Adrian’s guarantee that we would never have to write another essay once we finished tertiary education. This was a hooray moment. Aaaaand now I realise that I’ve pretty much written an essay here. Cool job, me.
The lecture was exciting and full of insightful points that encouraged us to think. I am looking forward to the rest of this course. And kudos to Adrian on his magnificent shoes.