First, how much do you really want to know about your professors? Does it help you as a student to have more connections to your professors? What happens when the "backstage" starts moving closer to the "frontstage" in college? I'd argue that students' lives are already moving from the back to the front. This story is about the professors' lives moving from the back to the front!
Second, Wow! This game, GoCrossCampus, essentially Risk applied to the Internet, sounds like a completely new way of playing games on the internet. It's more social and relies much more heavily on FtF interactions. They are even thinking of applying this to work to help team building in organizations!! Who knows? I always doubt that technologies spread the way we think they are going to! But this is really interesting!
Your thoughts?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
This article definatly shows how teachers are moving from the backstage to the front. I think that this can be good in some aspects and bad in others.
It seems as if professors accross the board have become more open with their personal life. This, in a way, can make a teacher more approachable. With a teacher sometimes talking of their personal life and putting up things like pictures, it somewhat blurs the line and makes them a little easier to talk to--a little less intimidating, maybe. I have not known many teachers to talk about their myspace or facebook, but that does not necessarily mean that they did not have one.
On the other hand, they are still the professor. I still have to respect them and do not want to know every aspect of their life, just as I would not want them knowing every detail of mine.
I agree that sometimes especially with the upper level classes, it is nice to have a professor that is approachable and relatable (sp?) and it is really nice to hear about their personal stories because I like to know things about the person I am with for a whole semester. I think that now days they line is crossed alot with students and professors but I can't say that I disagree with it...I think that we are all adults and it is finally nice to be treated like one in college rather than having a teacher breathing down your neck all of the time and telling you constanlty what you are doing wrong and right. I alos agree with megan that we don't need to share every aspect of our life and don't need to know everything about theirs. I was kind of srt of seeing a man and he had told me that he was a professor but i never really asked where...we went out a couple of times and then it fizzled out. I was sitting in a class one day and there he was...my damn professor!!! hahah I dropped that class!
I'm with Megan and Molly! I think it is a good thing when you know a some personal stuff about your prof. In my case when they share a about themselves I find them more interesting and enjoy their class more. For example, I had one prof that shared about his family, fav sports teams and stuff like that which I think is totally acceptable. Knowing these things made it feel more personal, which in turn made me feel bad if I ever thought about skipping because I didnt want him to take it personal. However, I also think that sharing to much or "getting" to close to one student online could bring negative things into the classroom.
I found the professor article to be really interesting, and I definitely agree with everyone else. I've had a professor that kept a very active MySpace page, and it definitely made him more approachable.
As far as GoCrossCampus, I guess this could be beneficial for some companies. Personally, I've never been a fan of team building activities :)
I think the article about professors is pretty much spot on. College professors can be very intimidating, especially to freshmen. Not to sound too cliche but it's nice to see that these people are human. I personally tend to do better in classes where I get to know the professor. There is a certain accountability that develops when you know that a professor is going to notice your absence in his/her class. However, I don't agree with the assertions that professors have to 'entertain' students and I think there is a point where sharing too much can cause a loss of respect.
GoCrossCampus seems like fun, but just like with so many other games I would find myself asking; "Couldn't I find a better way to spend this [amount of time]?"
Post a Comment