"WRXforScience" (WRXforScience)
08/24/2020 at 10:20 • Filed to: None
6
17|
"WRXforScience" (WRXforScience)
08/24/2020 at 10:20 • Filed to: None | 6
| 17 |
The last time I felt this much trepidation was when my Novice track student showed up in this orange Viper. Turned out he was very cautious and slow, he was one of my easier students to deal with and his sessions were actually a bit relaxing.
Well, predictably things have started out with technical issues. Zoom, which is the platform we’re using for all of our online classes, is down nationwide. Millions of students were going to be using the platform today across the nation, so problems were bound to arise.
Luckily, I don’t have a first period class; however, I’m not optimistic that Zoom will be up before my second period class starts. I was also planning on using Zoom to record my lectures and had planned on using the morning to get a couple recorded, which didn’t happen. My next planning period is 1pm on Tuesday, so videos will have to wait until then.
I’ll update at lunchtime if anything interesting happens.
UPDATE: Zoom started working halfway (45mins) into my first class and worked for the entirety of my second class. The virtual students are pretty much all on their own, I don’t have the ability to do any type of real-time monitoring or interaction with them and the in-person students. I make sure they’re all there during roll, and that’s pretty much it. I’m going to try to find ways to allow them to better interact with the class, but there’s only one of me and I can only pay attention to one group at a time. The in-person students get my attention by default since I don’t have a way to mute them (all the online students are muted).
Things are going more smoothly than I had anticipated, just like the guy in the Viper. Every day is going to be an adventure and I can already tell I’m just adding onto the list of things I have to do each day. Eventually I’ll fall behind and something will get dropped or cut for time, probably the recorded notes which I’m already behind on since they didn’t get done this morning while Zoom was offline.
hillrat
> WRXforScience
08/24/2020 at 10:26 |
|
Good luck brother!
TheRealBicycleBuck
> WRXforScience
08/24/2020 at 10:29 |
|
Clearly the problem is a lack of z oom, z oom in your Zoom.
I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
> WRXforScience
08/24/2020 at 10:37 |
|
The institution I work at (a university) has five “levels” of Covid-19 precaution. Level 1 was to proceed as planned, with a mix of in person, online, and blended coursework, social distancing and masks required in campus buildings and outdoor while unable to socially distance, level 2 same as level 1, but quarantining certain residential and academic parts of campus where outbreaks were occurring. Level 3 means all classes are online due to outbreaks that cannot be quarantined. At level 4, contact tracing is supposedly unable to identify possible cases, so the entire student body is expected to quarantine in on-campus residences, leaving only for essential stuff. Level 5 requires residential students to vacate campus.
Students began to move onto campus in staggered groups on the 17th (if I remember correctly)
, with precautions at level 1. Campus elevated to level 2 on Friday. Yesterday, we went to level 3. Currently, there are 68 positive
cases on campus. Keep in mind there are fewer than 9000 residential students and today was the first day of classes.
My expectation was that students would be asked to return home in mid-October. Now I’m thinking more like next week.
I wholeheartedly appreciate that the school has a pretty clear and transparent reporting mechanism designed to keep campus safe... but honestly? Students shouldn’t have been residential this year.
Deal Killer - Powered by Focus
> TheRealBicycleBuck
08/24/2020 at 10:39 |
|
You gotta Zoom!
Yes, I’m very old.
Nom De Plume
> WRXforScience
08/24/2020 at 10:44 |
|
funny/not funny
Have to wonder how many times local and national network functionality required for online teaching will be breached by kids with less than forthright intentions where attending school is concerned.
Wasn’t it a Junior High age kid who was behind the massive Twitter debacle recently?
shop-teacher
> WRXforScience
08/24/2020 at 10:46 |
|
I just did my first two classes. Thankfully it worked for me.
Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
> WRXforScience
08/24/2020 at 10:57 |
|
My employer started to switch to MS Teams, which is like super fancy zoom last fall. Little did we know how prevalent it would become. I actually remember talking to a guy on a plane one day last summer and he was telling me how awesome Zoom was and that I should use it for video conferences. Little did we know... The switch to Teams prior to the COVID shutdown ended up being a very luck draw for us and we were ready to keep working and communicating with clients and coworkers while everyone else was trying to figure out what to do.
Best of luck to you, my kids go back this Wednesday to get school issued chrombooks and other school issued items school for real starts
on Thursday with them going two days a week, the other three will be at home for the time being. The school is only allowing 50% of the students back for the first 4 weeks and they have a 100% at home program too. I’m curious to see how many students opt for that. I’m guessing 10-15 kids per class room will be the norm for a while. It was 25-30 previously.
CalzoneGolem
> WRXforScience
08/24/2020 at 11:29 |
|
Zoom is a terrible platform but it’s essentially all people have.
HammerheadFistpunch
> WRXforScience
08/24/2020 at 11:32 |
|
Today’s press conference via zoom will be...um...interesting.
VincentMalamute-Kim
> WRXforScience
08/24/2020 at 11:39 |
|
yeah, I would’ve guessed that bringing a Viper as a newbie would’ve ended in tears. That’s a good color.
How old was the
student? I’ve encountered a few older Corvette, Lambo owners on the track who drive like your grandma.
DipodomysDeserti
> CalzoneGolem
08/24/2020 at 13:13 |
|
At one of my schools we use Google Meets, and it is much worse than Zoom (I’ve used Zoom both as a teacher and a student).
|
CalzoneGolem
> DipodomysDeserti
08/24/2020 at 13:20 |
|
Better on the security front.
|
DipodomysDeserti
> CalzoneGolem
08/24/2020 at 13:28 |
|
How? Anyone with a link can get into a Google Meet. No password required, and no waiting room in case an unwanted party gets into a meet. I don’t trust Google any more than Zoom with my data, although Google already had everything on me.
|
CalzoneGolem
> DipodomysDeserti
08/24/2020 at 13:31 |
|
|
DipodomysDeserti
> CalzoneGolem
08/24/2020 at 13:34 |
|
Not sure what they mean by encrypts “messages”. Are they referring to Google Chat, which is their messaging app? I’m not a tech guy. From a teaching and learning perspective, Zoom is a lot better.
|
CalzoneGolem
> DipodomysDeserti
08/24/2020 at 13:37 |
|
P eeps could snoop on your data while it was in transit pretty easily and pop in and out of zoom meetings previously. I know they made some updates recently to address some of this. For teaching it’s probably not a huger deal but businesses it’s a huge deal. My work has forbidden even thinking about zoom meetings.
Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
> Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
08/24/2020 at 13:42 |
|
Just started using Teams for college and it is great. A little hard to learn but efficient and capable once you have it down.