Teacher makes modest demands

[supergee]

Students are welcome to shop online during my lectures.

Thanx to Chronicle

Comments

[arlie]

FWIW, if I give you my "undivided attention" during a presentation, I'm likely to unconsciously forget that it's not a 1 to 1 conversation, or that I'm only one of some large number of attendees, and start responding to you. Out loud.

If I'm foolish enough to stare at your face, rather than your slides, I can become hypnotized into not registering your words - it's a useful technique in other circumstances if you are basically just indulging in verbal abuse, and there's some reason I want to avoid responding in kind and/or getting depressed/upset about it.

If I want to absorb what you are saying as much as possible, I won't look at you at all (it's distracting), and will almost certainly do *something* with my hands. If, of course, you aren't one of those people who "know" that unless I concentrate on giving you signs of attention, while simultaneously suppressing signs of reaction (*much* more distracting than doodling, knitting, etc.) I couldn't possibly be paying attention, and it's more important to me to make you happy than to register what you are saying.

Some folks have had the sense to test me - if I'm doodling or playing solitaire, I can answer a snap question, and will engage with you appropriately (responses when needed). If I'm "paying attention" not so much. Many others just demand that I show appropriate body language, which their "mind reading" abilities correlate with actual attention.