Due to the rise in Technology, lectures nowadays can be viewed easily and studied online without the student even having to attend the class. Therefore students feel they don’t need to attend the lecture at all to ‘simply watch a lecturer read from the slides’. Looking back to the past however, without the internet, the lecture was the only chance a student could get to receive that information, to learn it and be involved with everyone else learning at the same time. Sure you can study the lecture slides online alone, but if you have a question? And sometimes in a lecture others will have questions you might have not thought of which would create a useful and informative discussion.

I would say a good lecture requires both lecture and students to be present, in order to create a special moment where everyone can actively participate, and get something from the time spent in that lecture hall. If phased out, it may create more isolation in studying, which in todays society isolation is already a large problem thanks to the rise of social media use among youths. It would also take away the important elements of questioning and discussion with peers.

There seem to be conflicting reports on whether or not lectures are effective. Many claim that lectures are possibly the best way for humans to learn because of our inclination to absorb spontaneous information as opposed to written information. Others claime that lectures are not successful unless both lecturer and lecturee are completely present in the moment. I would agree that much information is lost during lecturing as it is complicated for both student and lecturer to remain completely focused throughout the alloted time period. It is also difficult for a student to transcribe a lecture in its entirety when listening to it in real speed. However, with the increase in technology, lectures can be watched remotely, rewatched, and trancribed to full accuracy. I believe that lectures should not be phased out, especially because of the progression of technology, but I also believe that they should be broken up and used with other teaching methods.

It always depends on the course. Even though technology allows lectures to be accessed, there is a big difference between understanding theory and knowing how and when to apply it. A good lecturer would be able to provide students with plenty of examples from own experience and from real life. These examples would not necessarily be part of the written course material. Secondly, if a student is supposed to know most of the lectured material and be able to apply it during an exam that is carried out with closed books, it would be much less difficult to memorize it through attending lectures rather than reading them online or in the library.

Due to the fact that more and more courses are taught online these days, students need to be aware that due to a possible difference in students' and teachers' understanding about how lecture material should be used in order to succeed at a final exam, sometimes there is no correlation between good grades and the ability to learn all of the online lecture material. This is a big problem that should be addressed in order to promote fairness in education process and provide enough support to global online learners that are facing many challenges due to the absence of traditional classroom communication and clarity regarding the learning outcomes.