http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2015/10/professors_shouldn_t_only_teach_to_younger_versions_of_themselves.html

In last weekend’s New York Times opinion section, UNC–Chapel Hill professor Molly Worthen set the academic Internet ablaze with a paean to the unappreciated perfection of the old-fashioned “sage on stage” format, also known as the lecture. “Absorbing a long, complex argument is hard work,” she argued; the work is worthwhile because students ostensibly learn to “to synthesize, organize and react” as they listen. Abandoning the lecture, she argues, capitulates “to the worst features of the customer-service mentality that has seeped into the university from the business world.” Professors should advertise lectures as “an exercise in mindfulness and attention building, a mental workout,” and one that also hones that most important of important skills, note-taking. “Verbatim transcription is never the goal: Students should synthesize as they learn.”