This is the third week of the semester, but it’s the first week I’ve taught entirely in-person.
Both Babson and Framingham State started the Spring semester remotely, giving students time to get booster shots and take on-campus COVID tests. Babson returned to in-person instruction last week, and this week I finally met my Framingham State students face-to-face.
It’s strange to meet students in-person after you’ve already read their first assignments: the opposite of how it usually happens. The names and words on the screen now have flesh-and-blood personalities attached, and in my Tuesday classes we did an icebreaker activity I often do on the first day of class, not the third week of the term.
Omicron or no, I’m ready to be back in-person. Last Thursday, I taught my final (scheduled) Zoom classes from my desk in my bedroom while workmen in the basement clanged and rattled, tearing out a leaky oil tank and replacing it with a shiny new one. As Roxy paced and whined, upset that Strangers Were in the House Doing Things, I lectured to my screen and tried to maintain some semblance of professionalism despite the domestic chaos in the background.
After two years of intermittent work-from-home, I’m ready for boundaries again: let home happen at home and work happen at work. When I’m teaching or holding office hours on campus, I’m not worrying about walking the dog, folding the laundry, or unloading the dishwasher. Although I still grade papers, answer emails, and prep classes at home, I’ve had my fill of real-time remote classes. I’m ready to kick students out of my bedroom and back into the classroom where they belong.
Feb 6, 2022 at 7:05 am
i have a feeling the much lower cost per student of zoom and online compared to real life classes is going to assert itself
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Feb 6, 2022 at 7:26 am
That’s assuming that parents are willing to pay full tuition for online classes. My sense is that parents pay for the college experience as much as college classes themselves.
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Feb 6, 2022 at 8:05 pm
It is an interesting point that you brought up concerning the tuition cost for online courses. (I attended university before the emergence of the “world-wide web”.) Plus, the four academic years I spent living in a campus residence hall and attending classes are a period in my life that I feel privileged to have experienced.
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Feb 6, 2022 at 8:10 pm
Many students and parents felt colleges should have offered reduced tuition for classes offered online, but those complaints didn’t bear fruit. Some students took a semester or two off instead of attending class remotely, but this wasn’t a popular choice, either. (At least college kids at home doing remote school are *doing something* to advance their futures, versus simply staying home.)
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