What are you doing in meat space while you teach online?

[larryc]

So my university announced we will be online in the fall. I don't have to be anywhere for the rest of 2020. I can be anywhere--except not really.

Is anyone else looking at an extended time away from the classroom? I feel like, even under our circumstances, this is some kind of opportunity.

I have been going on a lot of long bicycle rides. I am thinking that maybe in the fall I could take a long ride around the entire state. I live in Washington State, it is huge and rural and spectacular. I could pack my ultralight camping gear and laptop and hit the road. Stealth camp on public land. Hit a grocery store with my mask on every few days (sounds like a robbery--let's put a pin in that idea).

I'd need to find wifi every few days, and have my two classes well organized before I left. I can do that.

I am a public historian--I could make the ride a social media event. Visit outdoor historic sites and cemeteries and the like and make little videos. Invite the public along with me.

Anyway--is anyone else seeing this as an opportunity to mix it up, do something completely different for a few months?

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

That sounds very cool, larryc. Maybe you could incorporate it into your classes too, if you weren't already planning to do so?

We're online for the summer, but I'm not sure what the plan is for the fall. There has been talk about hybrid classes. We'll see. If I don't have ftf classes this fall, then maybe I'll landscape around my house. I'm not sure I'd travel much since I'm signed up for six classes this fall. Wish I only had 2!

[mahagonny]

I don't always mind the mask because I'm not always smiling. Sunglasses for your mouth.

[Hegemony]

I wish! We are commanded to be back on campus in person in the fall.  However, in the past I have taught while travelling widely. Sometimes it did cross over with the subject I was teaching. Unfortunately I seemed to be more excited about that than the students were. "And here I am in Haworth, where the Brontes lived!  Here you can see..."  I think the unspoken student response was, "You may be. I'm stuck at home in rural Arkansas."

However, biking around Washington state is more the kind of adventure that has the right balance, where students won't feel it's unreachable and will be living vicariously. You might want to arrange some of the class material so you can do it through your phone.

[sprout]

My classes are going to be fully online, but it's a tossup on what we'll be doing for meetings.  We may still be staying off campus and Zooming, or maybe faculty/staff will be back even as we try to minimize student numbers on campus....who knows.

[mahagonny]

The real advantage to my mental state, so far, is not having the stress and drudgery of commuting. It takes its toll on one's energy, takes time and cost, requires you to worry about keeping your car in condition, etc. Of course, I will view it differently if we start getting poor. But for now, it's something to enjoy. More time to read & exercise.

[Hibush]

Gardening and making sourdough, of course. Isn't everyone?

[dr_codex]

Fall is totally up in the air, and with school-age kids -- with whom it has now been empirically tested know I cannot/will not/should not homeschool -- I'm not quite so footloose.

Summer is fully online. We're in a crowded suburb, so no long bike rides here. But we've seriously been thinking about taking the show on the road to a rural farmhouse that some friends cannot use, because they cannot get there. I'd need to pack up a bunch of books and every device that we own, but it would be worth it.

Almost a century, my maternal grandmother did the same thing when she contracted TB. She was tough as nails. I miss her.

[Puget]

So my university announced we will be online in the fall. I don't have to be anywhere for the rest of 2020. I can be anywhere--except not really.

Is anyone else looking at an extended time away from the classroom? I feel like, even under our circumstances, this is some kind of opportunity.

I have been going on a lot of long bicycle rides. I am thinking that maybe in the fall I could take a long ride around the entire state. I live in Washington State, it is huge and rural and spectacular. I could pack my ultralight camping gear and laptop and hit the road. Stealth camp on public land. Hit a grocery store with my mask on every few days (sounds like a robbery--let's put a pin in that idea).

I'd need to find wifi every few days, and have my two classes well organized before I left. I can do that.

I am a public historian--I could make the ride a social media event. Visit outdoor historic sites and cemeteries and the like and make little videos. Invite the public along with me.

Anyway--is anyone else seeing this as an opportunity to mix it up, do something completely different for a few months?

That sounds awesome larryc! I'm a WA native, as my moniker might suggest, though I haven't lived there since I left for college and only get back once or twice a year these days to visit my parents. I could imagine that making for a very cool class, with your students tracking your adventures and learning state history along the way.

Things are still uncertain here-- we've been told to prepare for potential hybrid classes and are supposed to take trainings in that over the summer. Teaching is not the biggest concern for me, I'll figure out hybrid if we have to -- I'm a psychologist, and what we are really trying to figure out is how and when we can go back to doing human subjects research in the lab. We're doing online research for the moment, but everything else is on hold, and even when we are allowed back on campus I just don't see how we can resume running our studies, which require physiological and neural recording equipment be placed on participants, anytime soon.

At any rate, I'm not anticipating being anywhere other than home this summer and fall, but I'm OK with that (other than missing visiting family, friends and mountains)-- I've got a recently purchased house with lots of yard and house projects to work on, cats to keep me entertained, and nice places to walk nearby.

[Dismal]

What is meat space?  :)

[Parasaurolophus]

The real advantage to my mental state, so far, is not having the stress and drudgery of commuting. It takes its toll on one's energy, takes time and cost,

Yeah, I was surprised. I don't mind my commute--it's quite pleasant, really--but it's long, and it turns out I was pretty tired from doing it for a year without a meaningful break. Not getting home at 20h00 four days a week is sweet.

No word on what's happening here in the fall yet, although the general suspicion is that we'll still mostly be online, since our classrooms can't accommodate social distancing at all. I'm sure that will be catastrophic for the university's finances, but, well. One of my courses was slated to be mixed modality anyway, and at this point it could go any way, since it was expected to have low enrollment.

If we are online, then I'd like to work in some of the camping trips in the rockies and the Pacific coast range that we weren't able to do this summer, and maybe even visit family in their far-flung abodes. But we'll see what's what. I'll definitely be phoning it in if we're online, though!

[larryc]

What is meat space?  :)

The physical world, not the internet.

[Parasaurolophus]

What is meat space?  :)

The physical world, not the internet.

And your meat suit is your body.

[Vkw10]

University plan is f2f for fall, with task forces to figure out how we'll implement. If that changed, I might just rent climate-controlled storage unit, pack and close apartment, and sweet talk my brother into renting his guest suite to me. He lives on a coastal barrier island with good walking trails and beach, has good wifi service, and is likely to need the rent money if economy doesn't pick up.

It's not likely to happen, but I can dream of walks on the beach between classes.

[Caracal]

University plan is f2f for fall, with task forces to figure out how we'll implement. If that changed, I might just rent climate-controlled storage unit, pack and close apartment, and sweet talk my brother into renting his guest suite to me. He lives on a coastal barrier island with good walking trails and beach, has good wifi service, and is likely to need the rent money if economy doesn't pick up.

It's not likely to happen, but I can dream of walks on the beach between classes.

The Current plan now is we start late, there's no fall break, no extended thanksgiving break and we end two days before Christmas. So, not much chance of vacation time...