A Brief History of the Lecture: A Multi-Media Analysis

Abstract

The lecture has been much maligned as a pedagogical form. It has been denigrated as a «hot ‎medium» that has long been «superseded» by the cooler dialogical and televisual forms. Yet the lecture ‎persists and even flourishes today in the form of the podcast, the TED Talk, Kahn Academy and the «smart» ‎lecture hall (outfitted with audio, video and student feedback technologies). This persistence ‎should lead us to re-evaluate both the lecture and the role of the media that have been related to it over time. This paper examines the lecture as a site of intersecting media, as «a site where differences between media are negotiated» as these media ‎evolve (Franzel 2010). This study shows the lecture as bridging oral ‎communication with writing and newer media technologies, rather than as being superseded ‎by newer electronic and digital forms. The result is a remarkably adaptable and robust form ‎that combines textual record and ephemeral event. It is that is capable of addressing a range of ‎different demands and circumstances, both in terms of classroom pragmatics and more abstractly, of the circulation of knowledge itself. The Web, which ‎brings multiple media together with new and established forms and genres, presents fertile ‎grounds for the continuation and revitalization of the lecture as a dominant pedagogical form.