ABSTRACT
The ubiquity of digital technology in all its forms has created profound shifts in our culture, including perceptions and expectations regarding time. This chapter seeks to discover the essence of meaningful teaching interactions. It explores students’ perceptions of time with faculty. The chapter presents invitation, presence, care, and enthusiasm as essential elements in connected teaching. Jane Dutton affirms the potential of single interactions as she explores high-quality connections in the workplace. One additional concept informs the significance of our interactions with students: asymmetrical primacy. Invitation, presence, care, and enthusiasm are intentions that enhance both brief interactions and longer term teaching relationships. Inviting students to engage is a routine act of teaching; however, presence, care, and enthusiasm might seem like extras. Energy as manifest in relational interactions connects closely with enthusiasm as it emerged in teaching research.
