That same sentiment hung like a nimbostratus over several unrelated conversations recently.
"Lectures are not working anymore", a number of people have confessed. First years are the usual targets of this sentiment - with the word "toxic" an unspoken subtext in several of these confessions.
I'm not entirely sure how much of this phenomenon is predicated on "a different relationship of students to knowledge" - the much-vaunted "web 2.0 generation" - and how much on the dissatisfaction of these teaching staff themselves with what they're perceiving as a growing chasm between the possible, the actual, and the demand.
The possible has certainly shifted - technology and (the locus of) knowledge negate the necessity of synchronous delivery of information; there are many other - and potentially better, depending on the requirements - ways of doing this.
The actual, too, has shifted. As non-recurrent funding allocations shrink, fewer tutorials get offered at the very levels they're needed, and more emphasis is placed on large-class teaching. Where conditions have also changed - ageing data projectors no longer work with modern laptops; acoustics are dire - particularly in venues such as the Beattie Theatre which has both the amplified foyer noise and the horrid hand dryers from nearby toilets drowning out any attempt by the lecturer to be heard - and often worse after "renovation"; time-tabling sends many students on yo-yo runs up and down the Hill causing their own tachycardia to smother any sounds from the front of the lecture theatre...
And the demand... the demand has certainly shifted. Not simply because Dr Google is a more efficient purveyor of information than your lecture, nor even because (Britney Spears notwithstanding) MTV has redefined standards of attention-worthiness. But also, I suspect, because they've bought the market discourse. They're consumers, shopping for the best product, and if they don't like, they won't buy... at every level.
One of the classical definitions of madness is persisting with a certain behaviour under similar conditions and expecting a different result (Dr Google's taken an early train home for the long weekend, so I won't reference that :) ) which exacerbates the pressure on those of use working in this Knowledge Factory on the Hill to think more creatively about what it is we're doing, and why... and how.