I made it through a week of isolation. Mostly. I still went “out,” but in my car to play Pokemon or to occasionally go to the store to get things I wasn’t able to get earlier. At odd hours. In that time, I’ve apparently decided to blog on a regular basis, catalogue my books (finally), watch an absurd amount of TV, schedule an impromptu podcast recording, and prep my classes for remote learning.
It’s been a weird week, y’all. A scary week.
The one upside to all of this is that I’m pretty sure most of my classes are going to be OK once we switch over to remote learning. While it won’t be ideal, most of my classes are already fairly embedded in digital tools anyway. For those classes, simply upping the stakes on managing the course wiki and wiki-based assignments is a no-brainer. For the other classes, the big question will be whether we can keep certain things “as is” or whether I need to adjust certain assignments and structures for a different mode.
Luckily, I think some of the digital technologies making the rounds in educational circles are going to work out pretty well. I tested Zoom with about 14 students, and it seemed stable enough for a classroom discussion once a week. And our course management software, D2L, offers ways to host discussion boards and the like, which I can use for the non-wiki classes.
The big thing that I think all educators need to realize, though, is that this will not be perfect. We cannot reasonably replace in-person classes with online classes without some loss of student learning outcomes. Some classes won’t even translate to online versions no matter what you do. So I think many of us need to temper our expectations and make sure our students do the same. This is Pandemic Pedagogy. It’s desperation. None of this is desirable. More importantly, we all would be better off putting our energy into changes that have wider national value than throwing all our worries into the educational pot.
And that’s one reason that I’ve been telling myself to find more time for joy and put less emphasis on work for the sake of work. Living in isolation is something that comes a bit more naturally to me than others — being an extroverted introvert and all — but that doesn’t mean the absence of traditional (for me) work and everyday interaction with colleagues and friends won’t have an impact on my mental health. Our physical health is not something to be taken lightly, but that also holds true for our mental health. If we’re going to weather this for a week, two weeks, a month, or even months, we need to do what we can to maintain that mind balance. That might mean working on home projects for some, changing daily routines for others, or flitting back and forth between doing “work” and enjoying “play” for even more others. Whatever it is, I think we need to do what we can to stave off the panic and terror while keeping ourselves distant from others and protecting our communities from infection.
So for that reason, I’ve been trying to find a nice balance between “productive work” and “play.” I’m completing home projects (cataloguing my books), completing work work (rebuilding classes), watching movies, playing video games, and even trying to get my eyeballs into some books (or listening to Star Wars books on Audible). Hopefully, this will keep my brain fresh and mostly stress free.
Anywhoodles. I’ve got cookies to bake now. More posts to come — some on social media. Stay tuned!
