The past few days very interesting.
Having taken steps to have all my teaching moved online, we got fast ‘net for Surf City, to allow for online teaching from here. Was pretty easy, though pretty expensive.
As I read the news these days, I’m reminded of a graphic I posted some time ago, of the 1918 flu pandemic’s progress. The “we are here” was a comparison to the coronavirus state-of-things in mid-March. I guess we’d now be comparing to about October on this graphic–well into the “second wave.” Though i’m not convinced we ever got past the first wave.
The daily news about the coronavirus, with intense surges, outbreaks, hospital and equipment strains, feels and sounds very much like the news from mid-March. Nothing’s getting better. And this administration is just so completely inept, so completely unwilling to look facts in the eye, that it seems to me the only way through this will be for everyone to get sick. And sick again, and again, until a vaccine is developed.
And now there’s an insistence that schools return to ‘normal’ in the fall. “It’s just not a big deal for kids, and they’re not big transmitters of this virus.” May be so, but kids aren’t the only ones in schools, now, are they?
So I’ve taken the administrative steps to move everything online. I’ve no doubt that everyone will be teaching fully online before the term’s two weeks old, but this way i’ll not put myself, Pattie, her mom, etc., in peril; and i’ll know from day 1 that i won’t have to make a ‘pivot’ in teaching approach.
I’ve begun the process of developing one of my courses into an online format. It’s a class i’ve taught since 1994. And i’m learning alot, re-examining lots of things, and hopefully honing the messages…