Divagando por aí... David Albrecht e bons professores, LinkedIn e etc

Gente, desabafo: o David Albrecht é um fofo.

<Abre parêntesis>: Acabei de pensar com os meus botões: 99% do meu uso do blog tem sido "impessoal". Tenho até me dado a liberdade de virar "comentadora". Mas em breve, muito em breve, utilizarei os materiais que andei coletando e rascunhando para postagens sérias. Risos. </Fecha parêntesis.>  ;)

Ele é super atencioso com todo mundo. Fico feliz pelo Blog ter me ajudado a estabelecer uma conexão com ele. Vez ou outra trocamos e-mails e tweets. Um dia desses recebi um e-mail com alguns questionamentos sobre o meu uso do LinkedIn mas não pude responder por estar no meio de uma viagem que não me permitiu sentar calmamente e me ater da maneira devida.

Enfim, abaixo segue uma das postagens dele sobre o tema. Acrescento aqui praticamente na íntegra porque acho digno e inspirador o carinho dele por todos que ensinou (um dia eu retruquei sobre a impossibilidade de conseguir decorar o nome dos alunos, mas ele educadamente discordou e ressaltou se esforçar muito para se lembrar de todos, independente do tamanho da turma) e pela pura vontade de influenciar positivamente a vida dos que o cercam.

Quando penso em professores assim acho difícil citar muitos nomes. E estou usando como espaço temporal toda a minha vida útil heim!? ;) Admito também não me considerar nem um pouquinho digna de uma admiração assim, como professora... Me considero uma boa orientadora e colega, ao menos.

Mas apesar da minha paixão pelo tema (e pela ideia), dedicação exclusiva (ou realmente dedicada) ao ensino nunca foi a minha prioridade. E isso é péssimo. Hoje entendo que a partir do momento que alguém se comprometeu a lecionar, deve fazer aquilo da melhor forma possível. E se o melhor não for bom, que se esforce mais ainda. Mas falaremos mais sobre isso no vídeo da palestra TED que publicaremos na segunda-feira... combinado? *.*

Enquanto isso: um brinde aos bons exemplos!

[Bowling Green, OH. Friday, July 24, 4 a.m.] It is 4:00 a.m. I am still up, working. That I am still up is not unlike some of my students. That I’m working is very much unlike them. After all, who stays up until 4:00 a.m. to study accounting if there is no test later in the day?

So what is an accounting professor working on during the summer? I’m glad you asked. I’m becoming better acquainted with some features of LinkedIn.

At the current time, I have about 900 first level connections. 300 are former students, 300 are professors. Then there are practicing accountants, regulators, social media experts, friends, a nephew and my older son.

Right now I’m growing and maintaining my network.

ProfAlbrecht’s LinkedIn Network

In the network map above, you can see the student connections from the schools at which I’ve taught: BGSU, Concordia College, and USC Upstate. A small cluster is forming already for La Sierra. Also, there are large clusters for professors and bloggers (and heavy social media users).

LinkedIn is a great network managing system, and in this digital technologies era I need a good network. For months I’ve been lamenting that I’m only connected to 140 former students from BGSU. There were thousands, and I’m sure at least a thousand of them are on LinkedIn.

A couple of days ago I got the bright idea to do an advanced search on LinkedIn inputting BGSU for the school and accounting for the industry. Suddenly I had hundreds of accounting grads to search through to see if they took a class from me. If they graduated between 1992 and 2010, probably they tookat least one course from me. So I stayed up late and sent out about 20 invitations to connect. All of them accepted!

That was the easy part. I now have to start working on establishing a relationship. When they were sitting in my class, forming a teacher-student relationship was expected. I learned most student names, most students learned my name, and I helped them learn accounting. But years later we no longer have a relationship. But I want one. [F-O-F-O!]

I send a thank you note to everyone who joins my network. For these twenty students, I can also ask if they remember anything about the course (or courses) they took from me. I ask if they liked the accounting program. Later on, I’ll send out an occasional e-mail. *.*

Sometimes a former student will e-mail me. In the past few months, a couple students volunteered to write a LinkedIn recommendation for me. Yes, yes, yes!

I’m also trying something new. I’m headed off in the fall to a school in California. I did a similar search (industry and school), and sent off a half dozen invitations to connect. Five accepted. From these students I hope to learn what it is like to study accounting at that school. I’ll also learn if they’ve stayed in touch with the school. Later on in the fall, I’ll invite them to attend the grand opening of the new business building and I’ll get a chance to chat face-to-face.

Once I get good at LinkedIn networking, I’ll start researching it and writing about it.by.

Debit and credit – - David Albrecht