Whenever I give a lecture, I always do two things. I use a meticulously-prepared PowerPoint slide show that reinforces what I say to the students, and I record my voice with an Olympus digital voice recorder strapped to my arm (with a microphone on my shirt collar). When I am finished with the lecture, I turn the slide show into a movie and mix in the recorded audio (of my voice) so that the lecture is perfectly reproduced. These lectures appear on this website. A typical lecture is broken into roughly 10 minute segments and indexed on the site for playback. My students use the web lectures both to reinforce what they thought they heard in class as well as to learn what they may have missed. Interestingly, I get some google traffic that also catches a segment here and there.

One of the things that should be understood about the pedogogical value of the web lectures is how the PowerPoint slides are used. Too often I see professors using PowerPoint slides in what I consider to be the "wrong" way. Slides should not be used as billboards in the classroom. Students really should not be trying to copy slide content and most surely should not be concentrating on them. Instead, they should concentrate on what you, the professor, are saying and taking notes just as if no slide show were playing. The only role that the slides play in the lecture is facilitating what you are saying. They should present screen elements that track your points and convey your ideas at the very moment you are speaking them. The slides keep students from drifting away or not realizing where you are in your train of thought. They prevent "day dreaming" (cognitive drift). They also allow tough conceptual material to be conveyed as you are struggling with the medium of words to set ideas into motion. Much like the way musicians accompany one another in a band, so too does the slide accompany your lead. The key to this, of course, is using a controller that allows you to manipulate when screen items appear. You talk, click, talk some more, and click again.

To view this technique in action, see the menu bar at the top of the website (titled Web Lectures"). To read more about how to perform this slide technique, click here someday [not ready yet!].