With a couple of conferences / events coming up that too many people at work want to go to, I was thinking about the benefit of attending events - not being that you learn anything you wouldn't have learnt from a few hours research on the web (often, even less time) ... but that you come away feeling inspired. Creating Passionate Users recently expressed very similar thoughts in in their post about SXSW Interactive.
I wonder to what extent the same ideas apply to the discussions about recording lecturers. In my experience so far, many lecturers are at one entranced by the idea of being recorded and fearful that students won't attend the lectures .. and that it's all a big government ploy to further slash spending on HE. And even to my other half, a lecturer, I sometimes find myself saying ... so what if it is.
Supposing inspiration and motivation can only really be delivered face-to-face. Will there be no impact on student attendance - will they come anyway? Will lecturers who are at the "inspiration" part be less likely to see attendance drop if lectures are available online? Should students be made to keep attending, for the good of their own motivation?