"I've only got one lecture that day"

"so that's why I didn't go to the lecture". While it is unlikely that lectures and tutorials will ever be mandated, obviously a student is not valuing a lecture by not attending. Financially, of course, it's cheaper to stay home, and easier to do.

I would like to say that if education is what one wants, and if that includes 'convenient and comfortable' as the adjectives to describe this education, perhaps one should enrol in an online course. (I did - suited me well!)

By attending lectures one is learning the following: "punctuality, intellectual discipline, community loyalty and personal responsibility" (Brabazon, 2002, p. 122).

Let's go back to the 'convenience' aspect. Tara Brabazon says, "The delights of life are not convenient. Why should the passions of education be any different? The enthusiasm and excitement of the classroom disrupts lives, promoting ruthless debates between partners, friends and parents. It should be exciting, distracting and highly inopportune" (Brabazon, 2002, p. 121). However, all of this takes intellectual discipline on the part of students, for them to attend and to be involved.

Brabazon maintains that, “Education is not predictable or efficient. It is the unproductive searches, the confusions, difficulties and frustrations that allow students to learn and make significant connections. The point of a great teacher is to grant meaning and context to the hard work, drudgery, disappointment and repetition that is required of scholarship” (2002, p. 122).

I do my best to create lectures and tutorials that involve active learning. I challenge my students with questions, and I expect full participation. I hope that students realize that I am creating sites of learning that are creative, innovative and ones that hopefully help to solve problems. However, I do not promise to keep students comfortable, in the sense of being unchallenged.

I've been recently reading this book (reference below). Thank you Tara Brabazon for inspiring me. I shall endeavour to inspire my students.

Brabazon, T. (2002). Digital Hemlock: Internet Education and the Poisoning of Teaching. Sydney: UNSW Press.