Kamakshi Balasubramanian

I grew up at a time when school teachers seemed distant figures, who were happy to be distant. That notion went right out of the window on the very day I wrote my last board examination. On that day, a group of us, elated students, visited our rather awe-inspiring teacher of mathematics to give her a gift. She treated us to cake and said thank you with tears in her eyes. She told us that she knew we were a mischievous lot who probably had fun at her expense in class every time her back was turned. She knew exactly which one of us was a mimic and who was the prankster.

At university, I had the good fortune to be taught by Russian teachers, who kept the doors to their homes open for their students. I have eaten meals with my teachers in Russia, I have heard exquisite poetry in their living rooms. From my American teachers I learned that you could be on first names with your professors and line up for a sandwich with them at lunch time, and keep your learning opportunities open throughout.

When I became a teacher, I am sure that those experiences shaped some of my beliefs about my role in my students’ lives. I know that I have consciously tried to develop a personal rapport with every student in every class I have taught. I know also that I am hardly unique in finding ways to build a personal connection with students.

School teachers are a sensitive and insightful lot. The best of them never stop working, and I don’t mean that in the limited way of marking notebooks or preparing for the next day’s lesson, although, that work really never does end. Teachers think about the students in their class long after the day’s work is done. From learning their names in the first days of a new term, a teacher begins to develop a sense of who each person is in the class. In schools where parents have an active role, a teacher’s knowledge of pupils becomes wider, thanks to opportunities to interact with their families of students.

Teachers, not unlike their colleagues in other community-oriented professions, are quick to utilize new and emerging channels for communication. I have personally experienced the impact of the electronic modes of communication which energize contact between teachers, students, and parents. It is not that email and social networks are better or more efficient than, say, the telephone or the handwritten note, but it is simply that new modes of communication offer unique features that expand a teacher’s mechanisms to establish and remain in regular contact with students.

When, some 10 plus years ago, I first began to use the email, including group mails to talk to my students, many people – among them my colleagues – thought that it was just a technology driven fad. Without exaggeration, it is clear to all today that millions of teachers the world over would find it difficult to do without the email to stay in touch with their class. Sending instructions about homework via the email means that I communicate clearly and precisely. I like having my copy of the mail on record for as long as I wish, which is usually for the duration of the term or semester. Filing things away is a lot less cumbersome on the computer, with the added benefit of being able to check who among your recipients hasn’t opened the given piece of mail. And, using the calendar built into many mail programs facilitates reminders, where necessary.

Innovations in technology have made a significant impact on the way we communicate. Take as an example a social networking medium such as the Facebook. I use it regularly to keep in touch with friends and, more importantly, to have an idea of what’s going on in the day-to-day lives of my circle of Facebook friends. Without describing the various functions available to a user, I would say that the Facebook, in some of its uses is way ahead of the email as we know it in facilitating casual communication within a community.

I see Facebook like a virtual block of college dorms in the evening, when the work day is done. People are mingling, running into one another in corridors, knocking on people’s doors looking for company, crashing into a party for a quick round of hellos, or sitting in one’s own room, just looking out of the window, watching the world go by, hearing laughter from a room above, noticing a friend at a study desk in a room across the courtyard. Privacy is for you to define in those spaces inhabited by the young. The ambience is informal, conversations are fleeting, meetings are chance, and opportunities for being passive in a bustling crowd scene plentiful.

For me, keeping in touch with past students has become increasingly pleasant through Facebook. You have access to your friends’ pages at all times and you can have a quick glimpse of their life as it is being lived. There’s something relaxed and easy about knowing that your friends can visit your page – as they would your dorm room – and get a sense of your state of mind, your preoccupation at that moment, and your friend can decide to walk in or pass by. From a word in greeting to quick chats about career decisions, my past students use the Facebook to tell their circle of friends (including me) about things going on in their lives.

I know some readers out there worry about confidentiality, inappropriate use of personal information, and the sheer amount of time one could potentially spend in the virtual world. Facebook users are as varied as students in an undergraduate dorm, where some party endlessly, some are reckless, but all are generally in it to exploit the opportunity to enjoy the unique life of a student life.

Today, with technology, we have the opportunity to belong to a variety of communities, where we can be active or passive members. As a teacher, I have always been surrounded by people much younger than myself, and the age gap has only widened, as the years have gone by. That’s been a singular advantage for me, as my students have invited me to experience their fresh worlds in many ways, including their world of social interaction through virtual spaces, using the technology of the internet. In our days as students, we didn’t really invite our teachers to learn our slang or hang out with us, even if they opened their homes to us. Today’s youth appear to be unencumbered by barriers we didn’t know to break. I am happy to be invited into their world of strange acronyms and short-hand slang, their nifty video clips and the ever growing semantics of the smiley face. Keeping friends has never been easier.

Dr. Kamakshi Balasubramanian is an educator and writer with significant experience.