To share or not to share?

Does this sound familiar to you, teachers who want to involve their class by telling personal details of their private life? Well, I do. Sometimes they illustrate the theory by telling ‘real-life’ stories, and sometimes they just want to entertain their students. I will tell you my own ‘real-life’ stories and experiences, and not only to entertain you.

Story 1    There is one teacher who looks and talks really formal. His first two lectures were boring (I am sorry), and I was doubting if it was really necessary to visit this course every week. But I gave him a third chance, third time lucky. And during the third lecture he started telling jokes about his personal life, and about his wife. Maybe the jokes were even funnier because of his formal tone, but the lecture was much nicer. A friend of mine who was absent during this lecture (I will not mention your name) did not believe me when I told her that he was funny. So to convince her, the next lecture we went together and at the beginning of the lecture his wife ‘showed up’ again (in his jokes, not in real, that would be too personal). Honestly, I do think that the jokes about his wife were just to entertain us, but it worked! I am almost looking forward to the next lecture.
      
Story 2   Another story, another teacher. Also this teacher told us personals details about her life, maybe too many, because I do not want to hear details about her online dating experiences. And believe me, sometimes it is better to not give the impression that you are a fan of World of Warcraft and to tell which avatar you have. So during a (boring) lecture without jokes, I was wondering how far can teachers go sharing personal information with their students?

What kind of information can teachers share? 
   Fortunately for us, this subject has been investigated. In this study the perceptions of teachers about the appropriateness of self-disclosure have been investigated. The study offered several implications for the way of teaching and teacher education. According to the teachers, subjects as personal experiences of the teacher, information related to their family, personal interests are permitted to tell in class. The interviewed teachers did not permit to share subjects as political preference, religious beliefs and information about their intimate relations (sex, marriage etc) with the students. Besides the do’s and don’ts, the teachers find that sharing personal information depends on the cultural background, gender, level and the emotional status of a student. 
     By reading the lasts results of the study some questions came to mind. What will tell a teacher differently, if he has a class with only men? More blue jokes? And I am wondering what students will tell these investigators about which subjects are or are not permitted to tell in class.
     But in a general sense, I do agree with the interviewed teachers. Sometimes you can share personal information with your students, but you have to know as a teacher what you can tell and cannot tell. Hopefully for all students, all teachers will read this article and will apply the results during their lectures.

It is not our fault!

Normans' book

Do you know that feeling that you have no clue how a certain machine works? And how many times did you try to open a door by pushing, while you had to pull to open it? How many times have you bought an Ikea design and spent hours to build it? It gives you a feeling of incompetence, and we always blame ourselves. But I have got good news. It is not our fault! It is the fault of the door, the machine, and the Ikea design. Actually, it is the fault of the designer.

That was the message of one of my first lectures of User-interface design. Our lecturer gave us a considerable number of good and recognizable examples. What a relief! Now I have good arguments if my colleagues of the opposite sex laugh at me while I am having problems with the printer. They cannot say things like “You should have been blonde” anymore. No, it is not my fault. (The fact that I am not blonde is also the fault of someone else. Blame my parents).

By the way, for this course we have to read the book of Norman ‘The design of everyday things’. It is a nice book, and as a starter in the world of communication experts it gives you the right way of thinking. I think it is a ‘must read’ for designers, but I can recommend the book to everyone. It is not a study book, it is just funny to read and it will open a whole new world.  

This was just a good advice, now back to the lecture. It was good news, but like the football legend Johan Cruijf said “every advantage has a disadvantage”, and he is right. While I was listening to our lecturer I was wondering if the designer adapts his design to the users how simple sometimes a design will be. Would not that be boring? Besides, it is nice to see other people trying to understand a machine or to see them walking against a door, because they thought they had to push to open the door. It is good for the development of a human being to think before they use some machines. And if every design is so simple that everyone will understand it, too many jobs will disappear, including the one of my favorite ‘printer- help- guy’.

And girls… If we do not understand a technical machine remember that is not our fault, but the fault of the machine which was probably designed by a man.