… and drowning in a sea of URLs.
While in some ways this week was easier than last week – I was, after all, in the same location all week, it’s also been yet another week of change.
At the weekend, I’d decided my old bike was on its last wheels, so went to get a new one. All ordered, and agreed to pick up later in the week. Then it was the lockdown, though luckily I discovered the following day that cycle shops were exempt.
That aside, I’ve been finding this week that there are so many things that need to be done, we’ve meetings galore – meetings online are tiring, but they get easier as you get used to them. The daily drop in support sessions we’ve been doing for staff have gone really well – the chance to chat to staff about what they’re doing – they’re so appreciative that it’s worth it – despite the odd technical glitch. It’s also giving us an insight as to what staff are coping with – they have far more people in a session than we do; often with a greater range of technical skills.
It’s not just drop ins, though, I’ve been trying, for most of the week, to make screencasts of aspects of Turnitin – trying to remember what I’d say in a classroom session, but to make it more concise (something I fear I don’t do well). I sadly didn’t manage to get to more than a few moments of this year’s PressEd conference – and I’m painfully aware that I should be doing a presentation for another conference that’s due to be delivered online next week …
That’s the juggling with water for this week.
Now the sea of URLs. As with so many, I accumulate URLs, I see them in Twitter, on news feeds, I find them who knows where; they get flung into pocket and generally just go there to wither. Some were from how people are thriving, moving learning online; I’m impressed by the time they seem to have to get things done, the quantity and quality of what they can generate seemingly in the here and now. There were, however, posts that chimed more immediately with me.
Firstly, It’s always useful to see what tools students are suggesting for other students – thanks to Matty, Kai, Curtis and Gagan for this.
Moving to the staff view, Alan Levine has summed this up as a ‘flawed experiment’ – though I’d like to think that at the end of it all, though not the best experimental design, we have found ways to help others over that chasm. That when it’s all back to “normal” – whatever the new normal will be, we can find ways to support change to the unknown.
Lee Skallerup Bessette has a powerful post looking at the juggling we’re all doing – though it’s a little more controlled than my water, I feel! She makes so many points that I agree with, so rather than pointing out any key ones, I’ll just say – I agree 100%.
From a technical point of view – I want to find an app that lets me do the slide images that the BBC are using so effectively here – if anyone knows a relevant plugin for WordPress, do let me know – I think I’m using the wrong search term!
In our team, we’ve been doing a daily challenge – today it was favourite children’s books. So many fun ones have been suggested!
Just to finish up – I was able to pick my bike up mid week – looking forward to giving it a bit of a test (locally!) at the weekend.
