This strip is #23 in a series dating from my university days. Puck ran for three full years in the Silhouette, McMaster University’s student newspaper.
This one is another example of academic humour; many people on campus thought this particular strip was the funniest of the series. It IS funny on a satirical level, but it’s made funny due to the fact that it’s not far off from the truth.
Higher learning the world over has given in to a ‘lowest common denominator’ perspective, and increasingly, universities are operated like businesses, with someone always watching the bottom line. Thus, you now have classes of five thousand students that are ‘taught’ with pre-recorded lectures, so one professor can theoretically ‘teach’ a small town. That’s not education. That’s a joke.
Well, this my joke based on their joke. I still think it’s funny.
Things come full circle; now thousands of people being taught with pre-recorded material is cutting-edge online education that people are clamoring for.
I had a university professor who defined the perfect lecture as “The lecturers notes becoming the students notes while passing through neither brain”
Interestingly, he didn’t take kindly to being told where the photocopier was (in the days before email).
Oh, note taking. There were a few profs at my school who actually sold the course’s collected notes in photocopy form as a makeshift textbook. For a lot of money. They were always almost entirely useless.
XD fortunately for me, my college doesn’t appear to believe in pre-recorded classes. I would have been so clueless about so many things without my professors there to explain.
That means you went to a decent college! Though at the time I wrote this joke (circa 1998) this comic was only a gag, reality is always not far behind, and this sad state of affairs has unfortunately become a reality at some schools.
Now we have online learning. So, one professor could possibly scale up the class as long as there are a steady supply of TAs and RAs available for him from the graduate department.
Yeah, well. I’d blame the guy who said that computer technology doubles every set period of time. Then compound that by increases in signal technology. Add in the factor of people wanting to boosts their earning potential, but not having the ability to park their butts in a classroom sitting. Then factor in the capability of people watching a classroom instruction at their leisure.
Now, try to tip the delivery dude a five to throw that solitary single orange…..
I bet that Daphne could get it to work. But the real joke would be a mind controlled Papa Schnorff.
Things come full circle; now thousands of people being taught with pre-recorded material is cutting-edge online education that people are clamoring for.
The sad truth of satire is that it’s sometimes only a few years away from truth.
The only Professors who held classes I enjoyed were the ones who taught via personal anecdotes. And limericks.
Limericks told through personal anecdotes?
You should try it !
or maybe not……
I had a university professor who defined the perfect lecture as “The lecturers notes becoming the students notes while passing through neither brain”
Interestingly, he didn’t take kindly to being told where the photocopier was (in the days before email).
Oh, note taking. There were a few profs at my school who actually sold the course’s collected notes in photocopy form as a makeshift textbook. For a lot of money. They were always almost entirely useless.
Clearly your profs had more business acumen than mine.
The profs didn’t. The university, though, was all about money and the extraction of it.
Um.. that’s a microphone not a speaker…
Oh, stop being so technical! (But yeah. Not sure what the thinking is behind that.)
XD fortunately for me, my college doesn’t appear to believe in pre-recorded classes. I would have been so clueless about so many things without my professors there to explain.
That means you went to a decent college! Though at the time I wrote this joke (circa 1998) this comic was only a gag, reality is always not far behind, and this sad state of affairs has unfortunately become a reality at some schools.
If the lecturer puts the audience to sleep, Satan can save money on the stun gas!
Well, they’d ALL need to fall asleep at the same time. Easier to release the stun gas.
Now we have online learning. So, one professor could possibly scale up the class as long as there are a steady supply of TAs and RAs available for him from the graduate department.
Joke ruined by time.
Yeah, well. I’d blame the guy who said that computer technology doubles every set period of time. Then compound that by increases in signal technology. Add in the factor of people wanting to boosts their earning potential, but not having the ability to park their butts in a classroom sitting. Then factor in the capability of people watching a classroom instruction at their leisure.
Now, try to tip the delivery dude a five to throw that solitary single orange…..
I bet that Daphne could get it to work. But the real joke would be a mind controlled Papa Schnorff.