I wish I could tell you it was intentional… I recently spent some time “catching up” on some reading of blog posts and e-newsletters. I found that several of the items were very connected even though they came from widely diverse sources.

Dearborn Real Estate Education’s “Strategies for Creating Unforgettable Student Experiences in the Classroom” did a reassuringly good job of “selling” the fact that classroom education has some distinct advantages and will provide an edge over low-cost on-line only education.

Edutopia’s Students Think Lectures Are Best, But Research Suggests They’re Wrong isn’t new news, but it does raise an interesting point: “…students don’t invest in high-effort strategies they think are ineffective.” At first, that sounds like a keen grasp of the obvious until you read and realize “It can be difficult for students to gauge their own understanding of a topic.”

Last but not least (human nature likes three’s) Seth Godin’s Break the Lecture completed this package. He makes an interesting comparison of listening to music versus listening to lectures. Spoiler alert: His last sentence nails it. “If we’re going to do it (lecture) live, then let’s actually do it live.” Reminds me a bit of the Harvard Review article that suggested the point of most lectures in the college setting is to “get the material from the instructor’s notes into the student’s notebook without passing through the brains of either.”

If you are teaching (and who isn’t really?), I commend these articles to you. When the very logical Kahn University model took off, lecturing as a teaching method again came under attack. So we’re caught in a zero-sum game. Any teaching method used poorly or exclusively becomes ineffective.

I have participated in (and I’d like to think given) some very effective lectures. The discussion might just be about how to lecture effectively and, most importantly, engage the students in learning. How do we engage our learners?

I spent some time at school this week and a second-grader tugged on my sleeve because she wanted to tell me a secret. After I leaned down, she whispered the name of one of her classmates who “wants to read with you because she thinks you’re really cute.” Hey, if it makes her excited about reading, I can live with it!