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In the architecture education field, the modes of lecturers‚ deliveries are constantly assessed and rightly so, for their performance and effectiveness in disseminating information or imparting knowledge. This is normally done through institution-wide survey of student satisfaction. But are lectures the only source of knowledge in the process of understanding a particular architecture, for example? As we understand, this is not the case. Interestingly enough, as the attached survey shows, they are not even the preferred ones by most. It could easily be established that architectural information has undergone various manners of representations in publications; most, if not all of which are author-driven in contents and structures. To whatever extent that these publications may have been relied upon as other sources of information and knowledge, it is unusual that there appears to be an absence of assessment of the effectiveness they assume to deliver. It is often found that in such publications, readers are met with irrational expectations of prior understanding of the subject matters that the publications themselves often become beacons which spotlight the positions or commands of knowledge of the authors rather than ones that genuinely guide readers to achieve maximum possible comprehension.
Could the reclusive nature of the activity, brought upon by these publications unlike that of the lecture settings, allow them to be easily unquestion-ed/able? Or have they become so effective that their positions are beyond reproach? In the age where a shadow of change is being brought upon by the presence of a more interactive electronic delivery, it is an interesting period to retreat and reassess the position of the current available media in relation to message recipients. Have the available sources of information really been effective? Will/Should Technology see mere replicas of traditional mode of delivery in digital forms? Could we see possible shifts of delivery methods? What should we be prepared for? These questions were springboards that launched the need for the survey. However, the collected data may be used in a few other various manners than to locate the present scenario or serve as basis to drive the future direction/s in architectural information representations. |