Here’s an excerpt from a nice bit of writing by a student at Louisiana State University.
His first class of the day is history. The class is mind-numbingly boring. Hardly anyone bothers to attend on a regular basis, and today isn’t any different. By 8:40 a.m., the classroom in Lockett Hall is only a third full.
Today’s topic has something to do with the Great Depression. It’s a topic everyone should probably care about — especially in light of today’s economic climate. Unfortunately, the professor is an old curmudgeon with absolutely no technological understanding. He even takes pride in the fact he doesn’t know what the devil this “Moodle” thing is. There’s no PowerPoint. No overhead. Just little old Mr. Magoo, droning away.
Half the students are snoozing. The other half are surfing the Internet, either updating their Facebook statuses or watching the latest Youtube hit. And, of course, there’s the creepy guy in the back corner of the room, glaring at his laptop intently. His enormous headphones are sagged around his neck, and his right hand is conspicuously submerged within his tattered corduroy pants, tugging ever so gently.
… At 9:49, after making the marathon walk from Lockett to Patrick F. Taylor, Saul walks into his accounting class. The professor is a young guy — probably a grad assistant. He’s the complete opposite of Saul’s last professor. A total tech geek. He even attempts to make a joke about Saul showing up late and walking right in front of the PowerPoint projector. A few brownnosers awkwardly chuckle.
For the next 30 minutes, Saul’s accounting professor steamrolls through more than 59 extravagant PowerPoint slides without giving any sort of coherent explanation. Saul can tell the guy feels a bit embarrassed about his lack of teaching ability. He even tries to cover it up by making a few jokes at his own expense.
But these self-deprecating jokes start getting a little depressing after a while. The insecurity is palpable. He might as well just ask, “Do you guys like me?”
Finally, Saul makes his way into his last class of the day — biology. His professor is a middle-aged woman with a load of personality. But her PowerPoint prowess leaves a lot to be desired. And so do her explanatory skills. It’s obvious to Saul this professor was forced by her department to utilize PowerPoint, even though it’s way out of her comfort zone.
As the last few seconds drain off the clock, Saul begins to reflect on what he’s learned today. The answer is a bit depressing — nothing. Absolutely nothing.
September 30th, 2009 at 7:40PM
Am I the only one thinking it’s Saul’s own fault he learned nothing?
Why must the world be packaged for him in scintillating sparkles of PowerPoint and technoglitter?
Why must every speaker enrapture every audience member into stunned silence?
If we flip this a bit, how many of us have ever read a lot of bad student prose? How many of us would have gotten fired if we failed every student who wrote a boring paper? Why then must students expect every instructor to grab their attention?
Maybe, just maybe, it’s the students who need to adapt. How many full-grown adults have had to learn to pay attention to boring people and read boring material? Why are we allowing students to get away with not doing so?
I’ve been in the lecture hall of Mr. So-Boring-Everyone-Fell-Asleep and usually had to tutor all the appears on the brilliant material they missed because they fell asleep. I had the stamina to stay awake and pay attention and actually learned something. Maybe that’s a valid latent function of college. Maybe?
September 30th, 2009 at 9:23PM
Hmm…
I’ve butted heads with Casandra before, but on this one I am sympathetic to her arguments.
As one of my old colleagues from years ago put it: You can learn something from almost any lecture, no matter how bad.
This woman got her PhD in the lab of the Nobel Prize winning scientist Wieland in the early thirties.
What the hell is Moodle?
September 30th, 2009 at 9:34PM
I’m thinking Moodle is Google, Bill.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:39PM
Moodle is an open source course management system, you can think of it as a competitor to Blackboard and WebCT.
I have to agree that the student who has learned nothing is the real fool in this story- why attend classes (or even attend college) if you can’t get anything out of the classes that are being offered?
September 30th, 2009 at 10:11PM
Brian: Thanks! I had no idea about Moodle.
October 1st, 2009 at 8:08AM
I notice the guy is a business & history major. He will find that in actual business, the information you need isn’t always presented to you in a crisp & sexy package. Wait till he has to try to extract information about a competitor from their 10-K, or to read a Request for Proposal from an auto company or a government agency…
October 1st, 2009 at 10:50AM
Ugh, what nonsense. Never in many, many years of attending college courses did I exhaust an entire day of class lectures without encountering at least one idea that was new and intriguing. May lightening strike Saul to rouse him from his dogmatic slumbers.
October 1st, 2009 at 11:53AM
A couple thoughts… 1) Yes, Saul needs to try to learn something through every experience. I’m sure there was some good info included in the classes even if not in a Saul-friendly delivery. 2) Saul’s three examples though show that it’s certainly NOT technology that makes or breaks a class or presentation. Sounds like there was no engagement of the class members (or none that Saul paid attention to) and that may have been the failure. Whether delivered in drone-speak or in a flashy PowerPoint, "information" may not be very exciting. Seems like it’s when class members are engaged in thought and/or discussion of some sort that encourages the transition from what’s being taught to what’s being learned.