what's wrong with this lecture?
25 april, the famous Norman Fairclough gave a lecture in Oslo. I had looked forward to it very much, but was disappointed.
He was given a difficult task: to summarize his latest book in just an hour. Unfortunately, his strategy didn't work.
Norman Fairclough under the overhead projector.
He structured his lecture around the Table of Contents; reading it aloud, and explaining what's in each chapter. That way, spent too little time elaborating on the why. Why is the book necessary? Why should I read it?
Since he got pressed for time, he skipped most of his examples. A bad choice. The examples could have shown his method in action, demonstrated how fruitful his approach is, and given all the detail that makes something interesting.
Worst of all, however, was his handout. Don't get me wrong, handouts can be nice. But his was 11 pages of 12-point type! He had an overhead projector, on which he showed an abbreviated version of the handout (about 9 pages, I guess). From the podium, he read aloud a manuscript only slightly different from the handout.
When you attend such a lecture, where should you focus your attention? On what he's saying, on your handout, or on the screen? You can't do all three, and probably not even two at the same time, as all are so heavily laden with information to process. The handout and overhead are well meant, but should have been skipped entirely.
Below is a short video captured with my phone. It shows the handout, the screen, and Fairclough, and documents that he in fact is a very good lecturer when you listen to him and watch him, he should just skip the writing.
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