Friday, September 16, 2011

Bill Cosby

Isn't it sometimes hard to build rapport with your face to face students? Isn't it even harder to build rapport with online students?

I can still remember one of my favorite professors in grad school (I'm not too old but old enough to start forgetting!). He knew all of our names and he always told stories from his past positions. This was a business class, so his stories were relevant to the material and we could see how the concepts we were studying were actually being used in the real world. I was working at IBM at the time, and his stories about an outdated, ineffective culture mesmerized me, as I could relate.

Are you building rapport with your students? Are you using your instructor notes to relate stories about your own experiences with the subject matter? Garr Reynolds asserts that storytelling is one of the best ways to relate to an audience, and he says that Bill Cosby (a.k.a. Cliff Huxtable) is one of the best at this.

Watch Bill Cosby in action and see if you agree. You may not be as funny as Mr. Cosby, but even a short story, maybe presented in a podcast, would make your instructor notes more interesting!

2 comments:

LADIbarra said...

When the craze of the Chat Room entered the computer age it created many unrealistic frienships and separated families. That controversy still exist today. I think the computer is too depended on for relationships & education. Building a real rapor with a person is created through friendship and trust. It is hard to do that when you do not connect in person.

Myesha Robertson said...

I agree with Tara's, comment about how sharing personal stories with your students helps build rapport. Because students enjoy sharing information about themselves, so hearing your personal stories will help them view you as a person not just a dictator. This will allow them to open up to you.