I don't know if that reference is only relevant to Boomers, geeks, geeky boomers, or geeky Gen Xers. In any case, the world is about to reboot.
We are fixing to see (now, I know that's an old time Southern phrase) what happens when we all start working at home as well as seriously curtailing our and our children's extracurricular activities. FOR MONTHS. People: MONTHS!
This is not a two-week delay-of-game. I believe Japan has been working at home since January 25th. Their schools are still closed, too. They are heading past 6 weeks and into 8 weeks of socially isolating. We are probably looking at similar time frames.
It's a hard reboot on the world's society in order to flatten the curve and save lives! So what is going to happen? Good question! As one of the people who said NO WAY! WE DO NOT NEED THE WORLD WIDE WEB! WE HAVE GOPHER AND FTP, I feel uniquely qualified to throw some ideas out there. Also, that was at the beginning of my grad career, and now I have tenure. So I'm extra fancy smart now. ((Note: I am not))
But I do see a few things positives that may develop from this hard reset:
1) We are going to be less busy running all over town driving our kids and ourselves to appointments. While that may sound horrible to you, I for one look forward to slowing down.
2) Our work is going to get down to the essential components. (I hope) All the fluff that justifies some middle managers may (PLEASE) be deemed unnecessary as we do what needs to be done to keep this world running.
3) We're going to learn how to enjoy our neighbors, our neighborhoods, and even--gasp!--our families. A walk around Plaza-Midwood yesterday was packed, even when we kept our social distance
4) Finally, for now, we're going to help the environment by learning that telecommuting actually works. Pollution is down in China. Venice's streams are clear. If we can figure this out--keeping socially connected while working at home--we might be able to save the planet as well as our fellow humans.
This is the positive outlook. We'll see what happens after we've been home for a few more weeks.
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Two weeks ago--before I left with 15 students for a Spring Break study abroad trip to Berlin--I saw a few coronavirus cases in Germany and was joking that if I had to be quarantined when I came back I would prefer the Army barracks to home because I could work as well as catch up on sleep, knitting, and Netflix.
One week ago, I was contacting the University asking if they were ABSOLUTELY sure we were ok because the number of cases in Berlin were starting to increase--doubling over a few days--and should we consider quarantining ourselves when we got back. I'm not going to throw them under the bus but the response seemed to be focused more on the CDC and their unwillingness to officially raise Germany's health threat level to what was actually happening on the ground with my students and me. Feel free to check Worldometer for Germany from 2/29 to 3/4 and understand my concerns.
Today, my students and I continue our self-quarantine for another 10 days, I'm moving my university classes online, and I anticipate that my three children will be doing homeschool/online school for at least through April. Dave (hubs) works at a retirement community. This is not a drill for them. And this NY Times piece suggesting the peak infection rate could be JULY says we could all be here a lot longer than April.
So, to keep from going crazy(er), I'm starting my Vlog back up. I'm going to be posting more here. And I'm going to share lots of advice (assvice, really) based on my research and experience of being online since 1984.
First, show you care. Work is important. School is important. But the human, socio-emotional connection to your family, friends, work colleagues, and students is THE most important thing right now. We are all scared. But soon we are all going to be very bored. ((Hopefully. I ready for it to be boring)) So: SUPPORT. Act like you care about your people more than you care about their work, the education, and following the standard organizational rules. Now following the pandemic rules? Hell to the yeah.
Second, embrace that things are going to be very different. Try new ways of connecting and working. Email is a cold medium. Google video chat with your colleagues instead. I don't care if you are not "dressed" for work (as I am not dressed for work right now). We can keep our connections closer and work, learn, support each other better if we can see each other and share socio-emotional cues. Try it. I am going to do so today. I'll report back on Monday
We may be here for a very long time. Vow that you are going to check on the most vulnerable in your community: the elderly, the single moms, the working poor, the homeless. If we take aggressive measures, we're going to keep the infection rate down. We will slow the roll, flatten the curve, and keep more people alive. BTW, whoever came up with "flatten the curve" as a public health policy slogan deserves a raise. ((See what a google search can tell you???)) It's as good as "Brexit" as trying to explain what we need to do. I hate Brexit as a policy, but it's a very catchy phrase.
One week ago, I was contacting the University asking if they were ABSOLUTELY sure we were ok because the number of cases in Berlin were starting to increase--doubling over a few days--and should we consider quarantining ourselves when we got back. I'm not going to throw them under the bus but the response seemed to be focused more on the CDC and their unwillingness to officially raise Germany's health threat level to what was actually happening on the ground with my students and me. Feel free to check Worldometer for Germany from 2/29 to 3/4 and understand my concerns.
Today, my students and I continue our self-quarantine for another 10 days, I'm moving my university classes online, and I anticipate that my three children will be doing homeschool/online school for at least through April. Dave (hubs) works at a retirement community. This is not a drill for them. And this NY Times piece suggesting the peak infection rate could be JULY says we could all be here a lot longer than April.
So, to keep from going crazy(er), I'm starting my Vlog back up. I'm going to be posting more here. And I'm going to share lots of advice (assvice, really) based on my research and experience of being online since 1984.
First, show you care. Work is important. School is important. But the human, socio-emotional connection to your family, friends, work colleagues, and students is THE most important thing right now. We are all scared. But soon we are all going to be very bored. ((Hopefully. I ready for it to be boring)) So: SUPPORT. Act like you care about your people more than you care about their work, the education, and following the standard organizational rules. Now following the pandemic rules? Hell to the yeah.
We may be here for a very long time. Vow that you are going to check on the most vulnerable in your community: the elderly, the single moms, the working poor, the homeless. If we take aggressive measures, we're going to keep the infection rate down. We will slow the roll, flatten the curve, and keep more people alive. BTW, whoever came up with "flatten the curve" as a public health policy slogan deserves a raise. ((See what a google search can tell you???)) It's as good as "Brexit" as trying to explain what we need to do. I hate Brexit as a policy, but it's a very catchy phrase.
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