I always felt something amiss these days when I attend lectures, but could never put a finger to it.

And somehow, it struck me today, when my lecturer in EC4880 scribbled on the whiteboard long and tedious mathematical equations.

No powerpoints! No slides, no clicking, no going through the motion of teaching.

Step by step, he pathed his thought processes on the board. No fancy animations, no onslaught of colours. And I realised how much better I would have understood these stuff than if they had been on powerpoint slides. The magical equations made more sense as they systematically appear on the whiteboard in tune with his voice. No more copying furiously in fear the lecturer click through the slides, no more going back the slides to emphasize the big piture; you can always choose what remains on the whiteboard.

I also remembered all my lectures were like that in US. All except 1, were taught by lecturers pouring their hearts out at the board.

I think I learn better this way as well.

~~~

I remembered the blackboard days. Days when I was class monitor in Primary 5, having to write the class attendance, date and day on the top right hand corner of the blackboard, and needing a chair for my 155cm body to stand on whilst I write. I would frame up the class attendance in bold yellow outline and underline the date in pink.

I remembered the chalks. Boxes of them. First there was only white, and then there was blue, pink, yellow and even green. I remembered how fun it was to write with chalks on the blackboard, trying out the different thickness in the strokes, written with the sides. I remembered how we used to throw the small pieces at the girls, days when single pony-tails were still in fashion. I remembered how I will wipe my chalk-stained hands on my shorts after writing something.

I remembered the duster. Having always to hit it by the side of the blackboard to "clean" it so that it can be used properly, the cloud of chalk dust leaving a mark on my khaki shorts, and settling on my black round-rimmed glasses.

Pupils looking down beneath textbooks not hard at sms-ing, but playing a game of tic-tac-toe with a classmate, or raving about the newest card craze. Teachers draw, write and talk above the usual chatter.

We learnt well then too, didn't we?

~~~

And suddenly the more we grow, the greater the disparity we find oursleves and our best friends that used to sit beside us in class. The better the technology, the further I feel I am from my teachers. The higher the quality of life, the more complicated living becomes.

It really wasn't bad at all back then, was it?

# rambled by Kenneth @ 11:16 PM