Comments on: At MIT – The Slow Death of the Classroom Lecture http://www.openeducation.net/2009/01/14/at-mit-the-slow-death-of-the-classroom-lecture/ Free Education for All Fri, 13 May 2011 00:38:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: jim http://www.openeducation.net/2009/01/14/at-mit-the-slow-death-of-the-classroom-lecture/#comment-6294 jim Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:15:49 +0000 http://www.openeducation.net/?p=1240#comment-6294 Some "sit and gets" are great, especially with a savvy professor who knows the students intuitively; as long as an instructor makes the lesson relevant and cares to break it down simply we all can get it. The "get" part is most tricky to ensure; most of us got the sit part down in elementary school (OK, not me entirely). :-) Focus on the teaching style, not the size of the room or the techy equipment. We need great teachers, not great rooms :-) The max I ask for is ergonomic tables for tests, and some form of essay delivery to make a test more easier to write on the hands. Oh, and remove weird distractions like the door right behind the prof in a lecture hall which opens in inconvenient times. A poorly dressed instructor could mess up the lesson entirely too! Who needs an old tramp to teach? S/he distracts from an exciting lesson. It is the type of tangent I almost hate! (Did I just go off on a tangent here? ) LOL - great piece. Some “sit and gets” are great, especially with a savvy professor who knows the students intuitively; as long as an instructor makes the lesson relevant and cares to break it down simply we all can get it. The “get” part is most tricky to ensure; most of us got the sit part down in elementary school (OK, not me entirely). :-)

Focus on the teaching style, not the size of the room or the techy equipment. We need great teachers, not great rooms :-)

The max I ask for is ergonomic tables for tests, and some form of essay delivery to make a test more easier to write on the hands. Oh, and remove weird distractions like the door right behind the prof in a lecture hall which opens in inconvenient times.
A poorly dressed instructor could mess up the lesson entirely too! Who needs an old tramp to teach? S/he distracts from an exciting lesson. It is the type of tangent I almost hate! (Did I just go off on a tangent here? )

LOL – great piece.

]]> By: mrsdurff http://www.openeducation.net/2009/01/14/at-mit-the-slow-death-of-the-classroom-lecture/#comment-6247 mrsdurff Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:26:37 +0000 http://www.openeducation.net/?p=1240#comment-6247 Is 80 students really a small class? Is it even an ideal class size? If I were shelling out the $ for an MIT education, I would expect far better. Don't the freshmen? Is 80 students really a small class? Is it even an ideal class size? If I were shelling out the $ for an MIT education, I would expect far better. Don’t the freshmen?

]]> By: joseph thibault http://www.openeducation.net/2009/01/14/at-mit-the-slow-death-of-the-classroom-lecture/#comment-6244 joseph thibault Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:07:11 +0000 http://www.openeducation.net/?p=1240#comment-6244 Interesting to see such a slow death from such a progressive institution. I can only imagine that $ is one of the reasons they aren't leaping to fully integrated TEAL classrooms. It'd be interesting to sit through one of the new sessions to get a feel for the difference, but I imagine that the course is actually FUN for the students. I got the most out of our physics experiments in HS... Interesting to see such a slow death from such a progressive institution. I can only imagine that $ is one of the reasons they aren’t leaping to fully integrated TEAL classrooms.

It’d be interesting to sit through one of the new sessions to get a feel for the difference, but I imagine that the course is actually FUN for the students. I got the most out of our physics experiments in HS…

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