Online student-teacher friendships
A CNN article came up recently that definitely occupies a concern of mine ever since I started working as a college instructor. Basically, it's about student-teachers friending each other of social networks like Facebook or MySpace, both of which I have an account for.
The article concerns itself mostly over teachers who are sexual predators and using those networks to prey on students. Since that's *definitely* not me, I actually would like to discuss a different concern of mine that relates to online student-teacher relationships.
Really, for me, it's about professionalism versus personalism. (Not a word, I know, but you get the idea.) You may have to just see my teaching style in action, but I'm very much one of those easy-going-joke-cracking-interactive teachers and getting, at the very least, a *little* personal with students is important in holding their attention and trying to make the topic relevant to them. Whether they are an engineer, doctor, or pilot to be, I try to at least familiarize myself with the layout of students so I can talk about things that *may* interest them with regards to physics or math, and perhaps find an entertaining tidbit or two. To help keep things lax, I keep the "young people vernacular" alive, using phrases like "cool" and "dope" and so forth when interacting with students to (hopefully) keep them at ease and make it easier for them to talk to me. I also try to use my own experiences to connect with them, whether they like fencing, flying, video games, etc. so they can (again hopefully!) connect with me on some common ground we share.
However, as my fellow LJ readers know, I definitely put some VERY personal information on LJ. But why don't I keep it friends-only? For one, I don't really like that idea. Just on principle, making entries privy only to certain individuals always makes me feel like I'm trying to hide something--which strikes a nasty cord with my "open and honest" personality. I believe that my friends and family should know my strengths and weaknesses so that they can cheer me on when things are good, and support me when things are miserable. I love my friends dearly and think about them all the time. Should I be ashamed to say that to the rest of the world? No! I like sharing the events of my life with my friends because, on some level, it's almost like I'm taking them with me on this journey called life. When I'm in the cockpit, I want to feel like all of you are with me. When I'm teaching, I want to feel like you guys are encouraging me. The victories are sweeter. And the defeats are softened. Because though we cannot be there for each other physically, perhaps we can be there for each other in spirit.
Two... I happen to know that I have about a dozen people who aren't friended on my LJ list who read my entries as well. I don't want to exclude them. Friends... cousins... parents of friends... grandparents of friends... I want them to know that I'm trying to live every moment of my life trying to do things to make them proud. These are people who watch out for me. People who love me. People who pray for me. The *least* I can do for them is let them know what's going on in my life. With some of these people, it's the only thing I *can* do. And, no, I'm not going to bother them by making them open an LJ account to friend me.
Three... I pretty much decided near the beginning when I started LJ that this was going to be an "open" forum about my own thoughts and feelings. In general, when I write an entry it's a "stream of consciousness" thing where I just say what's on my mind. Editing only done for spellings and clarification, not for content. I don't like the idea of me starting to feel uncomfortable about just blathering something... whether I'm just toying with a serious idea or not.
So anyway, my journal is very personal, but also will be forever 95% public. So even my students can read it. And, in fact, I know one or two former students who *have* read it. (Dunno' if they still read it or not, though!) For 99.99% of the time, I don't really expect any student to really read it, but for the one or two who do... they may be getting more than they bargained for. I mean, hell, can you imagine how weird it would be if your physics professor said and wrote half the things I talk about? (Whoa, Mr. Fong, I had no idea! LOL) Or your boss? I don't think that there's anything that I write or post that is inappropriate with respect be being a human being (and if I was fired because of the my own personal thoughts and feelings, then it's a horrible place to work in the first place!), but I also believe that developing a level of professionalism means a certain detachment. Not getting *too* familiar. What's the solution? It's not *really* a solution, but maintaining that level of detachment should be the burden of the student, not me. If I had a professor who had an LJ, I wouldn't read it. Why? He/she is my professor. When they teach, they have a front they put on to facilitate my learning. That is the front that I want to interact with. They like to ski? Cool. They think bacon is great? Awesome. I'll read about it after I'm not their student anymore. But if I *do* happen to read about their personal life while taking their class, then it is with the understanding that it may color my learning experience (for better or worse, who can tell?), but I wouldn't want them to stop posting for other people because of it.
Anyway, I've rambled on long enough! I shall put this stream of consciousness down and pick it up another day. Or not. Whatever. :)
The article concerns itself mostly over teachers who are sexual predators and using those networks to prey on students. Since that's *definitely* not me, I actually would like to discuss a different concern of mine that relates to online student-teacher relationships.
Really, for me, it's about professionalism versus personalism. (Not a word, I know, but you get the idea.) You may have to just see my teaching style in action, but I'm very much one of those easy-going-joke-cracking-interactive teachers and getting, at the very least, a *little* personal with students is important in holding their attention and trying to make the topic relevant to them. Whether they are an engineer, doctor, or pilot to be, I try to at least familiarize myself with the layout of students so I can talk about things that *may* interest them with regards to physics or math, and perhaps find an entertaining tidbit or two. To help keep things lax, I keep the "young people vernacular" alive, using phrases like "cool" and "dope" and so forth when interacting with students to (hopefully) keep them at ease and make it easier for them to talk to me. I also try to use my own experiences to connect with them, whether they like fencing, flying, video games, etc. so they can (again hopefully!) connect with me on some common ground we share.
However, as my fellow LJ readers know, I definitely put some VERY personal information on LJ. But why don't I keep it friends-only? For one, I don't really like that idea. Just on principle, making entries privy only to certain individuals always makes me feel like I'm trying to hide something--which strikes a nasty cord with my "open and honest" personality. I believe that my friends and family should know my strengths and weaknesses so that they can cheer me on when things are good, and support me when things are miserable. I love my friends dearly and think about them all the time. Should I be ashamed to say that to the rest of the world? No! I like sharing the events of my life with my friends because, on some level, it's almost like I'm taking them with me on this journey called life. When I'm in the cockpit, I want to feel like all of you are with me. When I'm teaching, I want to feel like you guys are encouraging me. The victories are sweeter. And the defeats are softened. Because though we cannot be there for each other physically, perhaps we can be there for each other in spirit.
Two... I happen to know that I have about a dozen people who aren't friended on my LJ list who read my entries as well. I don't want to exclude them. Friends... cousins... parents of friends... grandparents of friends... I want them to know that I'm trying to live every moment of my life trying to do things to make them proud. These are people who watch out for me. People who love me. People who pray for me. The *least* I can do for them is let them know what's going on in my life. With some of these people, it's the only thing I *can* do. And, no, I'm not going to bother them by making them open an LJ account to friend me.
Three... I pretty much decided near the beginning when I started LJ that this was going to be an "open" forum about my own thoughts and feelings. In general, when I write an entry it's a "stream of consciousness" thing where I just say what's on my mind. Editing only done for spellings and clarification, not for content. I don't like the idea of me starting to feel uncomfortable about just blathering something... whether I'm just toying with a serious idea or not.
So anyway, my journal is very personal, but also will be forever 95% public. So even my students can read it. And, in fact, I know one or two former students who *have* read it. (Dunno' if they still read it or not, though!) For 99.99% of the time, I don't really expect any student to really read it, but for the one or two who do... they may be getting more than they bargained for. I mean, hell, can you imagine how weird it would be if your physics professor said and wrote half the things I talk about? (Whoa, Mr. Fong, I had no idea! LOL) Or your boss? I don't think that there's anything that I write or post that is inappropriate with respect be being a human being (and if I was fired because of the my own personal thoughts and feelings, then it's a horrible place to work in the first place!), but I also believe that developing a level of professionalism means a certain detachment. Not getting *too* familiar. What's the solution? It's not *really* a solution, but maintaining that level of detachment should be the burden of the student, not me. If I had a professor who had an LJ, I wouldn't read it. Why? He/she is my professor. When they teach, they have a front they put on to facilitate my learning. That is the front that I want to interact with. They like to ski? Cool. They think bacon is great? Awesome. I'll read about it after I'm not their student anymore. But if I *do* happen to read about their personal life while taking their class, then it is with the understanding that it may color my learning experience (for better or worse, who can tell?), but I wouldn't want them to stop posting for other people because of it.
Anyway, I've rambled on long enough! I shall put this stream of consciousness down and pick it up another day. Or not. Whatever. :)