A philosophical defence of the traditional lecture

What an embarrassing article. The self-pitying passive-aggressive word 'vulnerable' is used three times. Why not try 'confident' instead?

Most people working in HE would know that lecture is not dead - it is live and kicking (just passed by a lecture theatre yesterday). I particularly like the bit about "passion" - yes, someone's passion for their subject does shine brightly in a lecture. Perhaps the debate should be switched from the war between pessimistic and critical damnation of lectures and idyllic defenses of it. Lectures are not a bad thing per se. They can be a fantastic well of information, inspiration, and as the article claims "a mode of address". Agree. The point is, there is a need to discuss what lectures ARE in a more interdisciplinary way, and they are quite a few things, so having any exclusive definition does not do it really. What about the lecture's environment, the lecture theatre design, any "prompts" used in lectures (today the omnipresent Power Point), all those ecological and embodied complexities that constitute a lecture. Yes, its philosophical history is worth considering, but perhaps we can start writing about it in a more inclusive and encompassing manner. The lecture is indeed a dialogic experience but there are different dialogic experiences, and for lecture to be a deeper dialogic (or vicarious) experience, the lecturer is faced with quite a few requirements. Lecturers might be the crucial factor for lecture's success and failure. Interested to see how this initiated dialogic relationship with students is maintained. From highly pragmatic perspective, lectures will stay because it is simply, at the end of the day, a more feasible way of running HE "business". It is just that it is becoming harder and harder for lecturers to make it a more meaningful experience for students perhaps (while thinking and preparing publications for REF, project proposals, doing research, marking, and so on; unless there is a greater emphasis on teaching and learning at a university).

ALIVE and kicking :) - typo

The issue with lectures is simply that in tests of understanding, they do not work as well as active learning.