COVID-19 Pandemic - Island in the Net

Dissonance is exhausting

Posted on 6th April 20206th April 2020 by Khürt Williams

[tweet https://twitter.com/gpetriglieri/status/1246221849018720256] [tweet https://twitter.com/gpetriglieri/status/1246222551799541763] [tweet https://twitter.com/gpetriglieri/status/1246226119617060865] [tweet https://twitter.com/gpetriglieri/status/1246466692722634754]

Will Shift to Remote Teaching Be Boon or Bane for Online Learning?

Posted on 31st March 202030th March 2020 by Khürt Williams

Will Shift to Remote Teaching Be Boon or Bane for Online Learning? (insidehighered.com)

The reality on the ground is that students and faculty are grasping for support while publishers, technology vendors and solutionist entrepreneurs are clamoring to provide it. “Black swan” may be a fitting description, but so might “disaster capitalism.”
... unfortunately, our lack of institutional planning, support and capacity building up to this point means many institutions will survive the current exigency by replicating and amplifying all the things we know not to do. For example, while we have learned in recent weeks that social distance is a good way to flatten an infection curve, *social interaction* is the key to effective online pedagogy.

With the Coronavirus, Hell Is No Other People

Posted on 31st March 202031st March 2020 by Khürt Williams

With the Coronavirus, Hell Is No Other People by Bill McKibben (The New Yorker)

Everything we can measure, from immune response to the onset of dementia to coronary-artery disease is worsened, often dramatically, in people with fewer friends.
Forget the physical risks, though; it’s the social cost that we should be absorbing, so that we’ll remember it when these days are past. We should use the quiet of these suddenly uncrowded days to think a little about how much we’ve allowed social isolation to grow in our society, even without illness as an excuse.

Via kOoLiNuS.

Flattening the Curve

Posted on 27th March 202027th March 2020 by Khürt Williams

The area under the curve represents the number of people who are expected to be infected by CVODI-19 will be the same independent of the height of the peak. That is, the summit may be suppressed, and the slope lowered, but the total of the number of people who eventually get sick will be the…

Socially distancing = loneliness, isolation, illness, and despair.

Posted on 26th March 202026th March 2020 by Khürt Williams

Social Distancing? No Way! Physical Distancing is the way! by Nichole Finger (Lake Norman Family Therapy)

The very last thing we need right now is to socially distance. Humans are by nature social creatures, living in social groups and working together as far back in human history as we can trace. We need support. We need to stay active and engaged. We need to remember we’re in this together. And we need to remember that social isolation is a huge contributor to mental and physical health problems of all kinds.
So let’s start a movement. If you hear people talking about socially distancing, remind them of the difference. Physically distancing = protecting our health and our community. Socially distancing = loneliness, isolation, illness, and despair.

Another one in case you are not convinced. Although there’s been no time to study the effects of social distancing related specifically to the coronavirus, we know a great deal about the impact of social isolation on mental and physical health. It’s often experienced as highly stressful, and the stress can become toxic. Isolation, particularly…