Instructors use tech to reach students

Richard Kahn tries hard to make himself accessible to his students.

In addition to holding office hours and responding to e-mail, Kahn ““ who was a teaching fellow at UCLA until last year and is now a professor at the University of North Dakota ““ answers questions through Facebook, video chats, instant messaging and, until recently, cell phone.

He acknowledges that this openness had some unexpected consequences.

“I ended up getting called by one student in particular at all hours,” he said. “I decided that Facebook was a very beneficial experience, but cell phone was not.”

Like Kahn, some UCLA faculty turn to unconventional technologies to allow students to reach them outside of the classroom.

While these technologies offer new ways for professors to communicate with students, they also present unique challenges.

For example, though psychology Professor Russell Poldrack has a Facebook profile, he said he is uncomfortable becoming Facebook friends with students taking his class, out of fear of appearing to favor those students. He also thinks it might be awkward because right now he only uses his profile to communicate with friends.

“I might feel a little bit weird having (students) as friends on Facebook because I treat that as a personal space,” he said.

Professor Douglas Kellner of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies also has concerns about privacy.

While Kellner was one of the first professors to use discussion boards and e-mail as teaching tools, he has not used other technologies to discuss his courses with students.

“I haven’t done the social networking, and it’s in part because I want to give the students their space,” he said, adding that some of his colleagues have found social networking effective.

Another professor of education, Ernest Morrell, notes that when professors use new technologies to communicate with their students, they enter an arena with few social norms.

In addition to e-mail, Morrell gives students his cell phone number but, to maintain some privacy, requests that they only text message him.

Text messaging is useful because it is instantaneous without requiring a computer, he said.

“A student will say, “˜There’s been an accident on the 405, and I’m going to be 15 minutes late. Go ahead and start without me,'” Morrell said.

When professors become friends with their students on Facebook, they gain access to students’ profiles, which presents the possibility they will discover something embarrassing. Facebook has privacy features that restrict access, but not all users turn these features on.

For example, when Kahn was new to Facebook and exploring the group site he created for his class, he noticed a comment on one of his students’ profiles that joked about flirting with teachers. Kahn also noticed that the comment was posted during his class.

The informal way students treat communication technologies such as e-mail, Facebook and cell phone took Kahn by surprise.

“I like to think of myself as a young, hip guy using all the technology, but between me and the students there was a profound generation gap,” he said.

For instance, some of Kahn’s students revealed how unprepared they were by contacting him at the last minute.

“I would get e-mails literally an hour before things were due saying, “˜Yeah, I’m looking at this for the first time, and can you tell me how to do this?'” he said.

While these new technologies present questions of etiquette, they also allow for more collaborative learning. Students, for example, can use Facebook groups or discussion boards as a means of sharing relevant news articles, YouTube videos and questions about course material.

Regardless of whether students and professors use new technologies to communicate, developing a close student-professor relationship can be especially important at a large university.

Physiological sciences Professor Christian Roberts, who uses Facebook and instant messaging, encouraged students to get to know their professors.

“It really helps the learning environment, and it builds camaraderie around the campus community,” he said.

Getting to know professors can create connections that might help later on, Roberts added.

“I wouldn’t be in the position I am today if it wasn’t for my communication with one of my old professors,” he said.

Though some UCLA professors and teaching assistants use newer technologies to make themselves more accessible, this is not common.

For instance, a search for UCLA faculty on Facebook only reveals about 250 hits, despite a population of more than 4,000 teaching faculty at UCLA.

Professor Albert Boime of the art history department is one of the many professors who sticks to office hours and e-mail.

Even though he does not use newer technologies, he does make a point of being available to his students.

“I very rarely have told a student, “˜I can’t talk now,'” he said.