The Professor as Open Book

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/fashion/20professor.html?ref=technology

by iamelgringo • 18 years ago

3 3 18 years ago

dhimes• 18 years ago

Interesting to see how this will play out. Professors are divided on the issue of how much to bare. There are those who feel that not being seen as an infallible guru takes away their prestige--even to the point of advising other instructors to never admit they don't know something. Others, like me, take a more "I'm human too" approach.

yummyfajitas• 18 years ago

I try to seem human, because I don't want my students to think that infallible guru's exist. Plus, many "infallible gurus" are real dicks.

Several times, I've gotten student evaluations like this:

"This prof rocks. When I pointed out a problem with my midterm, he immediately fixed his mistake and apologized. How awesome is that? "

girk• 18 years ago

I went to a very large university (~50,000 students), which is viewed as something negative by many people. However, I cannot recall a single class where the professor did not know my name. Similarly, I cannot recall a single class where I didn't get to know the professor in some personal sense.

Particularly at such a large university, I think that some sense of personal connection with a professor is important. Why? Because I believe students learn better from a person with which they can emphasize. Furthermore, in my personal experience, having an entertaining professor directly correlates with the amount of enjoyment, knowledge, and fulfillment that I feel I receive from the class.

Many of my professors are now on Facebook, and I wholly appreciate their effort to be accessible in ways other than email and/or office hours.

The Professor as Open Book

Related Stories