However, as a part of a larger online course, it could be a better idea than a glossary.
Seems a bit more interactive in the sense that it’s an explanation and not a definition. An explanation would broaden the meaning, a definition would nail it down, so to speak.
I don’t think lecturing is transmission. I think it’s exploration if done well. I don’t think there’s anything good to come out of the idea that lecturing is full of “excess verbiage” – transmission theory is bad, but you don’t know bad until you link transmission theory to pedagogy.
The problem isn’t the length, the problem is that access to lectures are tied to going to a particular physical place at a set time every couple of days. Podcasting, Netcasting, Virtual Worlds all mitigate that concern. Focus should be on those technologies in order to bring the lecture – still one of the most effective teaching strategies – into the 21st century.
For a good defense of lecturing, I suggest Woodrow Wilson’s essay on Adam Smith. Too bad it’s not on the web yet. I suggest the alternate technlology of books but beware the excess verbiage.
