Don,
On Nov 10, 2013, at 10:29 AM, Don Norman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> And although a professional actor could give the same,
> word-for-word lecture as a professor -- and better, would we go to hear it?
[snip]
> The point is that people wanted him to
> give the talk, not to learn his ideas but to experience him as a person.
Yes. It's an interesting mix. Most undergraduates don't know which of their professors are important in their field and which are not. So sometimes the aura thing applies but maybe not as neatly as we'd think.
But the human connection (even with 400 other people in the room) is a real factor. I wonder how much of that is the feeling that this is a unique moment. That would argue for single time mass delivery (like some MOOCs) and against prefab experiences like a "built" course or a television production. I often found the most popular lecturer classes felt too slick to me and the ones where I felt like someone was just talking to me were much more exciting. (Of course, I've learned that often the best way to sound like you're "just talking" is to write a script and practice the hell out of it.)
We do get some of that "in person" feeling from some video and sometimes it's not there even when we're sitting in the front row so I'm not claiming to be the least bit clear about that.
> Today they are using David Pogue, the NY Times technology columnist
> (footnote: he just announced that he is leaving the Times -- even though he
> was the most popular writer at the Times and treated really well -- to go
> to Yahoo!) I find his NOVA shows to be the best I have seen, although extra
> cutesy. He does pull it off. David also understands the subject matter
> quite well.
I agree with you on Pogue. He’s “cute” enough about so much that I should hate him but he’s smart and engaging and his cute factor doesn't have the cloying self seriousness that so many people delivering tech info display. (He also manages to answer email which is pretty impressive considering that he has to get many hundreds on a slow day.)
> 3. Many students drop out because they have learned what they needed to
> know. Or because they had other commitments that prevented them from
> finishing. or because they hated the material or the course. Dropout rate
> tells you nothing. (I have convinced Sebastian to teach shorter courses. If
> a 10 week course is taught as 5 two-week courses, people can stop, without
> being stigmatized as "dropping out."
I did that in my early undergrad days in regular face-to-face early '70s college. I'd take a class for my own reasons and would quit when I'd gotten what I came for--whether that was two weeks or the whole semester. When professors complain to me about their students, I tell them that I was engaged, thoughtful, prepared, and they should probably be glad they never had a student like me.
Gunnar
Gunnar Swanson
East Carolina University
graphic design program
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
[log in to unmask]
Gunnar Swanson Design Office
1901 East 6th Street
Greenville NC 27858
USA
http://www.gunnarswanson.com
[log in to unmask]
+1 252 258-7006
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|