Before teaching online, I assumed that one of the most important parts of teaching \u2014 rapport \u2014 depended on sharing a physical space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A classroom offers countless small signals: eye contact, body language, spontaneous questions, laughter and the energy of a discussion taking off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moving online changed those signals, but it didn’t necessarily remove the connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some students who were quiet in a classroom became more comfortable participating through chat. Breakout rooms created smaller spaces for conversation. Digital tools offered different ways to ask questions, respond and contribute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Online learning also introduced something the traditional classroom cannot always provide: flexibility. Distance, work schedules and other commitments became less of a barrier to participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But face-to-face teaching still offers something distinctive. There is an immediacy to sharing a room \u2014 the ability to notice confusion, enthusiasm or hesitation without anyone having to articulate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What both environments reveal is that rapport doesn’t come from a classroom or a platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It comes from presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A teacher needs to notice who is participating, who is withdrawing, who understands and who might need another way into the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The methods may change, but the underlying skill remains remarkably similar: paying attention to people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps that is one of the most useful lessons digital teaching has given us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Technology can change where learning happens and how people participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But connection still has to be created.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before teaching online, I assumed that one of the most important parts of teaching \u2014 rapport \u2014 depended on sharing a physical space. A classroom offers countless small signals: eye contact, body language, spontaneous questions, laughter and the energy of a discussion taking off. Moving online changed those signals, but it didn’t necessarily remove the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-3921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulmojournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulmojournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulmojournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulmojournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulmojournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3921"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ulmojournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4672,"href":"https:\/\/ulmojournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921\/revisions\/4672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulmojournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulmojournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulmojournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulmojournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3921"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulmojournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fthb-sponsors&post=3921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}