Think about the iconic learning space of higher education: the lecture hall. It is iconic because it has been a staple in universities since their beginning. Medieval images from the University of Bologna, founded in 1088, show students listening, pretending to listen or napping before a professor.

The lecture hall was a technological solution to the social and economic problem of disseminating information efficiently and affordably. The lecture hall solved it by being an auditorium, a place of listening. A single expert could disseminate information by having many people listen to him (always him) silently.

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