Lecturing tips: the walk, chalk and talk approach

I agree completely, I do use powerpoint though but only because I can't draw for toffee and sometimes a video clip or diagram helps

I also completely agree. Whilst I use some visual aids, I'm mostly for getting among the students, being animated and being lively with my marker pen; so that material builds in front of them. This form of enthusiasm is often mentioned by students and I'm rewarded with good attendances and honest feedback. Of course I would never claim my approach, or indeed any approach, is best; I only conclude it is correct/suitable for me and for my students. I just wish, however, that the army of pedagogic experts within my University would just leave me to get on with it; but in the fashionable world of knowing best, they don't!!

I was taught statistics by someone who broke all the usual rules. He'd stand with his back to the students and as he spoke he wrote what he as saying on an enormous set of blackboards. I thought it was just brilliant. Because he wrote as he spoke, it went slowly, and because he had a set of blackboards the whole lecture was laid out before you by the end. That's impossible with the tiny whiteboards that have replaced them (even if you can find a whiteboard pen that hasn't dried up).

Although being told how to lecture ("stand still") is absolutely creepy, I agree, the question of access can be embedded in similar requests: if your face can't be seen, your lips cannot be read. I don't think you should have to become immobile in response as it's easy to caption a lecture, and voice-to-text software can help you do that well enough for the purposes of a live lecture if a paid captioner is unavailable. (And live captioning can help students who are taking careful notes when they miss something while writing, and are a real boon to mulitilingial students whose first language isn't the same as yours.) Then it's your choice whether you release the transcript afterward. For lectures among colleagues, some share the transcripts; for classroom lectures, you can just have the live captioning in play and refrain from releasing transcripts except by request for access. LB

Well said! I have lectured like this, contrary to advice I was given when I first started, for the past 40 years, sometimes even falling off the raised floor if I paced too far. No student complaints yet.

I love how the writer goes on about how good a teacher she is and ONLY talks about lecturing! What is this, 1975? Don't the students have a voice? Hasn't she heard of active learning?

Hello. And Bye.