Used the whiteboard in my lecture today. Free speaking, working through the case in open dialogue.

No slides. Slides destroy the student's engagement, they present the material as fixed, whereas it is alive and needs to be called out.

My institution has rules that require us to use slides. I could not bear the suffocation any longer and just broke the rules. I will have to find some acceptable mix that maintains overall compliance, with the occasional free session smuggled in.

It was so liberating to be able to be in open dialogue with the material, no predetermined progression, the students experiencing the actual construction of knowledge live, sensing the personal investment needed to obtain truth.

The students were on board. Took notes, asked questions, talked to each other when I set them a task. Real learning, live in the classroom. Learning as joyful work, not as consumption. It is possible.

#lectures #pedagogy #HigherEducation #AcademicChatter #noSlides #constructivism