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From: 870158a@aucs.UUCP (Benjamin Armstrong)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.edu,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Becoming CAI literate
Message-ID: <934@aucs.UUCP>
Date: 11 Mar 88 00:52:35 GMT
References: <2960@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <1988Mar2.125247.28809@lsuc.uucp> <1988Mar9.183038.915@utzoo.uucp>
Reply-To: 870158a@aucs.UUCP (Benjamin Armstrong)
Organization: School of Computer Science, Acadia Univ., Nova Scotia
Lines: 44

In article <1988Mar9.183038.915@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>More efficient from both viewpoints, actually, for many things, is to use
>people for tutoring and *textbooks* for teaching.  I have never understood

Even in lectures where the degree of interaction is very low, a good lecturer
(and I have had a few) can present the material in a much more accessible form
than in the texts which accompany the course.  I agree; the texts should be
what teaches the student.  However, the professor should give shape to the raw
material provided by the texts in a way which fits her own style and the needs
of her students in lectures before moving on to questions, demonstrations,
etc.  You can't expect the texts, even good texts, to be entirely suitable to
the course.

You might argue that in such cases, the professor should write lecture notes,
photocopy them, and distribute them to the class.  While this may work in
some courses (e.g. introductory courses), I feel that the presentation of a
lecture by word of mouth, particularly as the student progresses to higher
level courses, is a vital element of the social fabric of the classroom.
A great deal more of the lecturer goes into a lecture than can ever be put
into lecture notes or a textbook, and without that expression of himself, I
fail to see how the channels of communication between the professor and the
students will be opened.  Demonstrations and questions must be about something.
Without the context of a lecture, the often vague recollections of the
students are the only fuel for discussions.

Why do we spend thousands of dollars inviting guest speakers to come speak
at our universities when it would be much cheaper and, as you seem to claim,
more efficient to just distribute copies of an article written by the would-be
speaker?  Is it just the thrill of hearing someone famous?  Oratory, so far
as I can see, will never be replaced by texts in our universities because it
has proven over the centuries to be one of the most effective and engaging
modes of teaching there is.

>damn few of them, and (b) they should be spending their time writing *good*
>textbooks so more people can benefit from their skills.

Ask some professors if they have the time or resources to write a textbook.
The ones I know don't.  Have you ever written a textbook?  If you have, tell
me if it was easy.
-- 
          Ben Armstrong at Acadia University, Wolfville N.S.
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