We are no longer used to write, we require a exams with ipads! We are no longer used to read, we require teaching via youtube. We are no longer used to think, we require the university to be ours.

Enda en gang driter studentpolitikerene seg loddrett ut. Eksamen med pc? Har ikke folk fått med seg at det er viktig å kunne skrive slik at folk kan forså det som skrives selv med hånd? Og kreve at all undervisning skal på nye former? Jeg synest at tavleundervisning er det beste når det gjelder læringsutbytte, da er det riktig tempo, og det er raskt å gjøre improvisasjoner. Det er ikke like smidig med powerpoint.

Det verste måtte være en forelesning i mattematikk, for eksempel i flervariabel kalkulus med powerpoint.

Det er bedre å sørge for at muligheten til å benytte et verktøy er tilgjengelig der det trengs, enn å kreve at noe skal brukes. Og forøvrig så er jeg helt enig med kommentaren over.

Det här är helt rätt! Jag själv har förespråkat liknande förändringar sedan urminnes tider.

@Martin: What you are debating against is a straw man. Youtube isn't supposed to replace books. It's supposed to replace lectures where you have to be on a certain place at a certain time, not taking advantage of the fact that you have tons of other people to interact with, but instead sitting passivly and listening to one person speaking. Why should every lecturer have to invent the wheel again and again? Isn't that a huge waste of resources? Why not just post the best lectures on internet for everybody to watch and then use the teacher's time for something useful, like actually having them interact with the students?

You're setting up a false syllogism.

@Msc: Jag håller med dig om att Power Point är värdelöst och borde plockas ut ur klassrummet. Dock tror jag inte att denna grupp förespråkar fler Power Points i föreläsningarna heller.

Vidare. Ja, det kan absolut vara viktigt att kunna skriva för hand, med tanke på att papper och penna fortfarande används till stor del (någonting som inte kommer att vara fallet om något decenium eller två). Men varför ska denna färdighet promt inkluderas på en examen? Examen är ett kunskapstest. Varför inte använda sig av det medium som eleverna är mest bekväma i att uttrycka denna kunskap på? Att kräva att de skriver för hand är som att kräva att eleverna skulle sitta på föreläsningarna med hörlurar med vitt brus i. Det är ju viktigt att lära sig fokusera på någonting trots att man har störande moment runt omkring sig.

not taking advantage of the fact that you have tons of other people to interact with, but instead sitting passivly

sitting in a lecture students have at least the chance to interact with the lecturer, whether they like to take that chance or rather not raise their hand is a different question. In Norway the tendency of better not dare to ask is particular high.... And also the lecturer has the chance to interact with the students.

In contast, watching a video is the 100% guarantee that there is no interaction, it's the institutionalized passivity. The lecturer never need to see any student at all, the student never need to come to the campus. Everyone is happy.

In principle, what you say seems plausible: repeated lectures are a waste of time, just film it and do it once only. But in practice you replace one often passive teaching form by the most passive one there is, namely watching a video.

Indeed, one does not even need a university, because there's probably a better video from a more famous university with a better looking tutor than the local one on the net. why not simply watch that one?

I am just skeptical. It's just a further step in making the whole university more impersonal and anonymous. I am giving lectures in a theoretical field (mathematical/computer science) so I see it similar to MSC: sometimes blackboard is the best, and it has nothing to do with modern vs. unmodern.

I don't mean to say, that modern'' forms of teaching have no place, but blindly trustingtechnological'' solutions is just that: blind. If one wants to improve teaching at the university, the solution is not "modern technology". Of course, it's the cheapest solution, because buying PCs is peanuts as compared to hiring people.

sitting in a lecture students have at least the chance to interact with the lecturer

If you read my comment again, you can see that I do not say that the pupils shouln't interact with their teacher. If everybody watched the lecture at home, during a time when they felt most comfortable doing so (some people, for example, doesn't function especially well during the morning...why drag them up to study at that time then if they could be more effective later in the day?). Then, when they come to school, the "real lecture" can for example start with the teacher saying "So, any questions?". Then you have time for interactions during 2 hours, rather than having to fit in a lesson which doesn't require that everyone is there at the same time.

In contast, watching a video is the 100% guarantee that there is no interaction, it's the institutionalized passivity.

That's necessarily not true. If you watch a lesson on Youtube you have the time to pause, think, make some extended notes, search the internet for things you don't understand et cetera.

For example, I'm never able to follow a math lesson. Why? Because as soon as the teacher says something which I don't understand and would have to think about for 10-15 minuter (at best), I'm lost. Then the lessons goes on for another 2 hours while I'm still stuck at the very first equation. And the class doesn't have time waiting for me to get it. Here, a video is much more efficient. I can pause it and ponder the problem for as long as I want to.

Indeed, one does not even need a university, because there's probably a better video from a more famous university with a better looking tutor than the local one on the net. why not simply watch that one?

And why is this a problem? This is what I'm doing right now since the University for me is nothing but an institution that (a) gives me direction on what pages I should read in certain books, (b) gives me the opportunity to visiting uninspiring, boring, power point filled lessons which have, as you point out, much better substitues on the internet and (c) gives me a paper saying I read those pages I was supposed to read.

ometimes blackboard is the best, and it has nothing to do with modern vs. unmodern.

I agree with you 100% here. This is not about making the education more modern, only better. I myself, is a big fan of the black board over a Power Point-presentation.

I highly recomend this lecture and Q and A session by Salman Khan, who runs Khan Academy on YouTube ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C7FH7El35w ). He talks a lot about what we are talking about here.

If you read my comment again, you can see that I do not say that the pupils should not interact

I did not intend to imply that this had been your standpoint. I guess, most people would on that interaction cannot be bad. Probably our opinions are not so far apart.

I was, however, irritated by the tenor of parts of the original article. It's concerned more also with exams, where written exams are explicitly denounced as "gammeldags, utdatert" (with additional argument that writing is stressful for today's student generation).

That opinions is equally meaningful as claiming that oral exams are outdated, it should be done via i-phone-call or skype or what not.

Besides that, in principle and philosophically of course, there's nothing wrong with having exams via PC. Except that it has quite a number of problematic technical and organizatorial challenges. But, I mean, if one goes to a university, one should expecpt that writing is not beyond the people's capacities.

So it's tenor of the article which, rather unreflectedly in parts, seemed to say ``we request better teaching, which means "PC-based and Internet based". That's "silicon snake oil" for me, to quote the already quite dated book by Clifford Stoll (an internet "pionieer" himself), but the book is still an interesting read.

I was, however, irritated by the tenor of parts of the original article. It's concerned more also with exams, where written exams are explicitly denounced as "gammeldags, utdatert" (with additional argument that writing is stressful for today's student generation).

I totaly agree. Changes should be made where doing so would benefit the students, not just because it's an old. And I have to say that this "writing the exams on computers instead of paper" is a pretty unneccesary thing to try to change. Sure, I would prefere if it was done on computers but really, let's look in to the really important parts first, like the learning process.

I don't know what philosophy these people have behind their wishes. I mean, if they only want to have podcasts versions of the lessons because they're to lazy to show up for class in time, then they're not really changing anything. Podcasts should be used so the teachers can stop giving lectures and concentrate on other things. If however, these guys only want the teachers to record the lessons and post them on the web in addition to having them as usual, then it is a pretty useless change.

Great initiative! The university is one of the last places you will ever be asked to write a text by hand in your life. Personally I wrote all exams on a computer for six years before going to uni. Having to adjust to writing by hand set me back quite a bit.

But if being able to write long texts by hand is such a valuable life skill, I guess I should be thankful.