From: C. Gopinath [mailto:
cgopinat@suffolk.edu]
The recent flurry of postings on PowerPoint got me thinking on a related
issue. My son, home from college for the summer, casually mentioned that
this past semester, he caught-up on sleep Sunday nights because he
regularly skipped the Monday morning class. I choked on my cereal hearing
this, since I am a full-fee paying parent and college tuitions are not
what they used to be. My son's explanation was that there was no benefit
attending that particular class because the instructor has placed all his
notes and PowerPoint slides on the course website, and all he does in
class is to repeat it. So here was an instructor who not only provided the
notes beforehand but also conveniently summarized it for the students!
One of my tech savvy colleagues a few years ago told me that he always
gives his students a hardcopy of the slides so they can pay attention to
the lecture and not be busy taking notes.
I beg to differ. I believe that when the students listen to a lecture and
on-going discussions in class and then take their own notes, they are
building an important skill. The skill of understanding and summarizing
the information in a form that they can comprehend. In the process, they
understand the subject better and when exam time comes, we can read an
explanation of the subject in their own words, rather than have our own
words thrown back at us. I rarely use PowerPoint slides since I don't do
much lecturing in class. But even when I do occasionally use overheads, I
decline the requests to provide the students a copy unless it is a
complicated chart or figure that they do not have in their books. Learning
to take notes is a learning skill that instructors must help cultivate in
their students.
peace,
gopi
****************************************************************************
**
C. Gopinath, Ph.D. Phone : (617) 305 1934
Suffolk University Fax: (617) 573 8345
Management Department Internet:
cgopinat@acad.suffolk.edu
Sawyer School of Management
8 Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108, U.S.A.
****************************************************************************
**