Faculty Profile – Thierry Rakotobe-Joel

The students in Professor Thierry Rakotobe-Joel’s business management courses learn the term BYOD early in the semester. That stands for Bring Your Own Device—everything from laptops to smartphones to tablets. He helps students make use of these technologies in class by engaging students in research, simulations, and communication. Professor Rakotobe-Joel says, “This is the greatest time to be teaching with technology. We have so much at our fingertips. We just have to make the leap and use what is available to us.” The end result is that students become engaged in real-life scenarios, including the unfolding of the recent recall of Samsung’s Galaxy 7 smartphone. Through computer simulations and modeling, the business students learn the ins and outs of supply chain management, customer service, and problem solving.

Now in his nineteenth year in higher education, Professor Rakotobe-Joel has always been in tune with technology. He describes learning to teach with technology as a journey. The lessons he learns each semester help him improve his course delivery over time.  Now that he has converted his courses to a hybrid model, he feels he is maximizing the time that students spend in class and online to increase their engagement with the content. He flips many of his classes, so that students are exploring content and practice problems at home. In class then, Professor Rakotobe-Joel is free to engage students in discussion and analysis rather than lecture and review.

By allowing students to use their devices in class, Professor Rakotobe-Joel dispels the myth that mobile devices and social media can only lead to distractions. His class has its own Twitter feed, which he keeps on screen during class. Students tweet questions or comments during the class, enabling even shy students to have their voices heard. Of course, this requires a culture of trust, self-discipline, and accountability from the very beginning of the semester.  Professor Rakotobe-Joel believes that this BYOD approach is worth the effort, since students are so connected to their devices in every other aspect of their lives.

Professor Rakotobe-Joel has some great advice for instructors who are new to teaching with technology. “Start small and don’t rush,” he advises. He reminds us that teaching with technology is an incremental process that you cultivate over time. With this step-by-step approach, he believes that there will be evermore opportunities for technology infusion with each new semester. Professor Rakotobe-Joel is on a journey of teaching with technology, and we look forward to learning more about his adventures along the way.

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