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I was learning Scheme from old SICP lectures online. Best lecture EVER. Why would professors need to make same lectures every year? It make more sense to make

by stralep 16y ago

I was learning Scheme from old SICP lectures online. Best lecture EVER. Why would professors need to make same lectures every year? It make more sense to make new lectures only when they have something new or better to say.

dagw 16y ago
You can't ask questions and start discussions during pre-recorded lectures. The important part of a lecture isn't just the words being spoken by the lecturer, but also the impromptu discussions they lead to.
- muuh-gnu 16y ago
  Then you also need to tape the questions and answers and assemble a video FAQ accompanying the lectures. Or let other people support the lectures and answer upcomming questions. I think that its a collosal waste of time and ressources to make great lecturers repeat the same lecture over and over and over again to a small, limited number of students, instead of letting them record a larger number of one-time lectures. My favourite example is Salman Khan. If he had to repeat a few chosen topics over and over, he would never had the chance of creating a body of work as large and comprehensive as his academy. He said about that: "With so little effort on my own part, I can empower an unlimited amount of people for all time. I can't imagine a better use of my time." By the way, in the recorded SICP lectures, there arent actually _that_ many interesting questions asked. If Abelson and Sussman thought your way and prefered live interaction just in order to be able to answer more questions, thousands of people during the last 25 years would have not been able to experience them _at all_. It is not fair to reduce great lecturers to mere question answerers, IMO the accompanying Q&A sessions always account for a very small part of the value of a lecture, i.e. just to fill a occasional gap.
  - dagw 16y ago
    Don't get me wrong, recorded lectures are great. I love the SICP lectures and I'm really happy the web as given me the opportunity to see them. However if I was given the choice I'd far prefer to have had the chance to be there live and discuss the material with the lecturers, and if the lecturers at my university had said "I'm not going to given any lectures, since I recorded them a few years ago" I'd feel very ripped off. At the end of the, as good as recorded lectures are, they'll never replace "the best" teaching experiences.

by stralep 16y ago

dagw 16y ago

You can't ask questions and start discussions during pre-recorded lectures. The important part of a lecture isn't just the words being spoken by the lecturer, but also the impromptu discussions they lead to.

muuh-gnu 16y ago
Then you also need to tape the questions and answers and assemble a video FAQ accompanying the lectures. Or let other people support the lectures and answer upcomming questions. I think that its a collosal waste of time and ressources to make great lecturers repeat the same lecture over and over and over again to a small, limited number of students, instead of letting them record a larger number of one-time lectures. My favourite example is Salman Khan. If he had to repeat a few chosen topics over and over, he would never had the chance of creating a body of work as large and comprehensive as his academy. He said about that: "With so little effort on my own part, I can empower an unlimited amount of people for all time. I can't imagine a better use of my time." By the way, in the recorded SICP lectures, there arent actually _that_ many interesting questions asked. If Abelson and Sussman thought your way and prefered live interaction just in order to be able to answer more questions, thousands of people during the last 25 years would have not been able to experience them _at all_. It is not fair to reduce great lecturers to mere question answerers, IMO the accompanying Q&A sessions always account for a very small part of the value of a lecture, i.e. just to fill a occasional gap.
- dagw 16y ago
  Don't get me wrong, recorded lectures are great. I love the SICP lectures and I'm really happy the web as given me the opportunity to see them. However if I was given the choice I'd far prefer to have had the chance to be there live and discuss the material with the lecturers, and if the lecturers at my university had said "I'm not going to given any lectures, since I recorded them a few years ago" I'd feel very ripped off. At the end of the, as good as recorded lectures are, they'll never replace "the best" teaching experiences.