In Defense Of Lecture: Using Technology Inside And Outside The Classroom

In recent years, the lecture format has been the subject of numerous criticisms and cast aside as an old-style pedagogical method that has no place in the modern college classroom. One reason that lecture has gained such a bad reputation among many in the educational community is the idea of providing a 'learning-centered' approach in the classroom. In 1995, Barr and Tagg described a paradigm shift in higher education where institutions should exist to produce learning rather than to provide instruction1. Since this article, there have been many initiatives that have embraced this learning-centered approach. A few examples include Greater Expectations2 and the Pew Grant Program in Course Redesign3. Note that ABET's Criterion 2000 is an example of this paradigm shift as engineering programs must now assess how well students are learning and not what we as instructors are teaching.