At some point in our lives, most of us have attended a school or university lecture. These learning sessions give us some insightful nugget of knowledge or can be something we yawn through, trying to keep awake. Whatever our experience, lectures have been and still are the most common teaching method in education. But will they exist in the future?
在我们生活的某一时刻，我们中大部分人都参加了学校或者大学的学习，这些课程给了我们一些有深刻见地有价值的知识，或者可能是我们打哈欠极力保持清醒后得来的某些知识。无论我们的经验如何？上课仍然是一直是最普通的教学方法。但是在未来它们还会存在吗？
With the growth of the internet and so much information at our fingertips,you may think there is no need to gather together at a fixed location clutching a handful of textbooks.BBC journalist Matt Pickles, says "research has shown that students remember as little as 10 per cent of their lectures just days afterwards.
随着互联网的发展，很多信息都是唾手可得，你可能认为没有必要汇集到一大堆教科书这样的固定的地方。BBC记者Matt Pickles说，“研究表明几天后学生们只能记住10%课程里学习到的知识。”
Professor Carl Wieman, who campaigns against the traditional lecture, felt talking at students and expecting them to absorb knowledge was not that effective so he introduced 'active learning' that encourages problem solving in small groups. He listens to them and guides their discussions. The result has been improved exam results. Other new alternatives to the lecture have included peer-to-peer learning and project-based learning that enable students to link up and work collaboratively on projects such as building a computer game.
Carl 教授，他反对传统的课程，感觉对学生们说话和期望他们掌握知识不是那么有效，所以他提出“主动学习”，鼓励大家以小组的形式解决问题。他倾听大家，指导大家讨论。考试成绩得到提高。另外还有一些新的替代课程的学习方法包括同学间的交流与分享以及专题式的学习方法，使得学生们组合起来，协同工作，共同参与一个项目比如一个电脑游戏。
Sometimes the lecture room is not conducive to learning; a boring, colourless room is not necessarily an inspiring place for stretching the mind.At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology two lecture rooms have been refitted to allow students to sit around small tables with screens showing animated simulations to help them visualise concepts.
有时，教室不利于学习；一间乏味无趣的教室不可能成为拓展思维用的鼓舞人心的地方。在麻省理工学院，有两间教室进行了重新装修，让学生们围坐在一些小桌子旁，桌上的屏幕播放着模拟动画帮助他们想象抽象的概念。
But new learning methods can come at a high financial cost compared to the relatively cheap way of being taught face-to-face by anacademic.The real issue according to Professor Dan Butin, founding dean of the school of education and social policy at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, is that "Academics put thousands of hours of work into their books and much less time into thinking about theeffectivenessof their teaching style." But he says "the lecture has survived because research,not teaching, determines the success of a university and its academics."
但是新的教学方法与相对便宜的面对面教学方法相比，财务成本要高，Dan教授，马萨诸塞州梅里马克学院教育与社会政策学院的创始院长，他提出的真正问题是“大学教师把数千小时的时间投入到他们的课本上去了，很少的时间用于思考他们教学方法的有效性”。但是他还说，“讲座幸免于难，因为研究而不是教学决定了一所大学和学术的成功。”
So if research quality is a measure of a university's success and money is tight, then the lecture could be here for a little longer. How does that make you feel? How would you improve your lectures?
如果研究的质量是衡量一所大学成功的方法，而且资金短缺，那么讲座可能会在这里更长一些，你会觉得怎样？你如何改进你的讲座？
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