From the NY Times, “At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going the Way of the Blackboard.” Increasingly, profs found the large-lecture approach was failing — even in classes with bright and engaged students. The article details the transition at MIT to an approach featuring smaller classes and a more interactive teaching style, including those click response units that give a prof instant feedback for what students are (or aren’t) picking up. Attendance is up, failure is down. It’s better, but it’s not cheap: two interactive classrooms cost $2.5 million. Any recent college students like to chime in from their own experience?

What’s the Mo app? [That’s a term I coined for wringing an application to Mormonism from general interest stories, this being a blog about Mormonism.] Teaching plays a prominent role in LDS worship and culture: adult Sunday School is a weekly class; Priesthood and Relief Society meetings, also held every Sunday, always include a lesson; Seminaries and Institutes provides daily or weekly courses to LDS high school and college students. How effective is all this teaching? We all know Correlation dumbed down the curriculum, but what about methods? I’ve seen LDS training seminars where the speaker uses PowerPoint, but I’ve rarely seen that done in regular classes. Chalkboards and pictures from what used to be called the library (because it used to offer books) are the only tools generally used. Has anyone seen a better way to teach Sunday School?