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DAVI THORBURN: In thinking
about how the course has

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to evolve given the availability
of all this new technology,

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one thing I've especially
thought about-- worried

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about, actually-- is how much
of my own lecture material,

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which I now have on video to
make available to them, as

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against my live performance, and
whether my live performance is

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even necessary at all.

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How does it differ from-- and I
still haven't worked that out.

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For two semesters now,
I have taught the course

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with a combination of live
lectures and video lectures.

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And I've asked the students
to tell me in commentaries

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whether they saw
much difference,

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and whether they preferred
one to the other,

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or whether they had
strong feelings.

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And so far, the
testimony has been, meh.

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They don't seem too interested
in the question, which makes

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me a little nervous, actually.

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So my feeling is that it's
still an open question.

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One thing I definitely
have decided

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I will be able to do
with this video material

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is using it in other courses.

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If I an in advanced
course in film,

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and students haven't taken
my earlier film course,

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I can send them to this
material and have them use it.

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So it's immensely valuable
as a teaching tool.

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But how to integrate it
into the existing course

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remains a conundrum I
haven't quite figured out.

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As I've begun to work
on this, now it's

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been some years since
I've started to have

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some video lectures available.

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I think I realize that
I was naive in imagining

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that the transition
would be easy,

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that moving into a
video format was simply

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a matter of
transferring what I say,

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because in fact, the live
environment turns out

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to be more central
and more important.

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And my feelings as I'm
in the life environment

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turn out to be more
essential and more important

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than they might otherwise be.

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There's something about being
in a live environment that

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affects me, and I think
other teachers, maybe not

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all teachers, but other
teachers very deeply.

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I used to have
the fantasy when I

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was in front of a large
audience of students,

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maybe as many as 100 or 150,
I had the delusion or illusion

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that I was in touch with
every student in the class,

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and that every single one of
them was paying attention,

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and than when they
didn't, I could feel it,

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and that I could see
there was a student who

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would stop paying attention.

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I would somehow walk in
that direction of the class

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or get that student's attention.

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Now, I'm sure it was a
fantasy because how could you

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be aware of 100 students?

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But I had the illusion
that I was aware of them.

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I was certainly aware
of many of them.

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I was aware of them
as individuals.

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I was aware of whethet-- and
I felt I had them wrapped.

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And when I felt I was losing
them, I would change pace.

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Maybe it has something to do
with a theatrical aspect to me

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that really doesn't help much
with being a good teacher.

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But maybe it does help
with being a good teacher,

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and that maybe good
teachers do have

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to have a bit of the ham
in them and like being

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in front of audiences.

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This is a special
problem for the Western,

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because it celebrates American
individualism so powerfully.

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The iconic scene of
the Western in which

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two men wearing gun square
off against each other,

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and the quicker one survives,
that scene of the quick draw,

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and of the [? dif ?]
and the dusty street,

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can be said to be a kind of
embodiment of these values

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in which you have
to rely on yourself.

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You can't rely on someone else.

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You can't rely on
the government.

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You can't rely on the Sheriff.

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You can't rely on the police.

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You can't rely on
your neighbors.

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You have to trust yourself.

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And in fact, one
of the ways you can

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see the power of these
Western mythologies operating,

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as it seems to me
in some sense, one

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of the great divides
in the States

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today over the question
of guns and gun control

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is partly grounded in these
myths of individualism,

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that the Western
mythology has been

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promulgating since before
the advent of the movies.

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And I think part of what
makes my teaching good

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is that I'm in a kind of trance
when I'm in front of a class,

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in the sense that I am utterly
oblivious to what I look

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like, I know for one thing.

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I have done teachers
nightmare kinds of things,

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like having my shirt unbuttoned
without realizing it, or coming

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in with my hair incredibly
askew without knowing about it.

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Once I gave a lecture at Yale.

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I had young children
at the time.

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And I had a child.

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My wife was with the
two other children.

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I had to take a
child to a doctor.

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We took him to the doctor.

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But I had to go to
give my lecture.

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So I took him into
the lecture hall.

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And I sat him down in the
corner of the lecture.

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And he was about
seven years old.

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And he sat nicely in the
seat for a little while.

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I wasn't paying
attention to him.

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Then he climbed up.

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I was lecturing on a stage.

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And he climbed up on the stage.

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And he went behind me.

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And he sat in a big
chair behind me.

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And he made faces.

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And the students begin to laugh.

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And I couldn't understand
what was going on.

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But it taught me a great lesson
in the theatrical reality

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of the lecture hall.

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So I've come more
fully to understand

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that things that are
hard to articulate

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or that I at least had not
much thought about, certainly

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have not been written about
in pedagogical literature,

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about the ambiance
of the live classroom

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has some effect on lecturing.

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I mean it should have
effect in smaller classrooms

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even more fully, I think.

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But for lectures, I
think it's important too.

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And the transition to purely
video lectures loses that.

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How big a loss that is,
or whether that loss can

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be compensated for in other
ways is a good question.