A transfer of light and sound

I was filming a lecture on diabetes management today and the lecturer set the students a group task and prefixed it with: “A lecture is just a transfer of light and sound what you are going to do next is learning.” I thought this was a rather charming description of the 'teaching' method common to most higher education institutions. He was absolutely right when he said “learning happens when you interact and engage with the material” and this is exactly what he had them do. They were given three areas of research and asked to discuss in groups and then present the information from their papers. As a lecturer he could have easily summarised the information and compared the three papers in 2 or 3 slides, and I think many in his position would have, but as an educator he made the students involve themselves with information. Furthermore in adding a level of peer evaluation to it the students are more focussed on knowing and presenting the info because it is important for them to stay on a level with their peers. Some may argue that at a masters level students should have the skills to take presented information and learn from it. However I am not sure at what point Higher Education stopped teaching and started presenting. You wouldn't expect an 8 year old or a language student to watch a presentation, listen to some facts and understand maths or become a proficient English speaker. So why expect the same of a student studying for a masters.