Random Thoughts 14: I can see clearly now 2020 edition

  • After Iowa State won the Big 12, a Cyclone made a wonderful offer to We Will that now increases our match. Now all gifts up to $400,000 between now and the Final 4 will be matched. Please consider giving at We Will Collective.
    This notice can be dismissed using the upper right corner X button.
Status
Not open for further replies.

BCClone

Well Seen Member.
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Sep 4, 2011
61,414
55,962
113
Not exactly sure.
Had to do a parent move last night. Too much activity for the oldest to get classwork done. I had instill a basic dead week type atmosphere at the house. From 9-12 and 1-3 its quiet time. I also told the son to get his rear end out of bed and do work from 8 am on. Told him its quiet because his siblings are asleep at that time. He went for a run at 8:15 and seems to be following that schedule.

Only one person isn't really following it and its the wife. At least she takes a lot of naps so it will be somewhat decent. At first it looked like a great semester to take 18 credits, now it doesn't look that way. Some of his instructors have nothing up yet so that will get difficult to catch up on maybe.
 

ImJustKCClone

Ancient Argumentative and Accidental Assassin Ape
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Jun 18, 2013
58,603
42,291
113
traipsing thru the treetops
Had to do a parent move last night. Too much activity for the oldest to get classwork done. I had instill a basic dead week type atmosphere at the house. From 9-12 and 1-3 its quiet time. I also told the son to get his rear end out of bed and do work from 8 am on. Told him its quiet because his siblings are asleep at that time. He went for a run at 8:15 and seems to be following that schedule.

Only one person isn't really following it and its the wife. At least she takes a lot of naps so it will be somewhat decent. At first it looked like a great semester to take 18 credits, now it doesn't look that way. Some of his instructors have nothing up yet so that will get difficult to catch up on maybe.
FWIW - I have a bunch of faculty friends, and the scuttlebutt from them is that many of them are really struggling with the required technology, while others are simply procrastinating. Hopefully those issues will resolve, and soon.
 

BCClone

Well Seen Member.
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Sep 4, 2011
61,414
55,962
113
Not exactly sure.
FWIW - I have a bunch of faculty friends, and the scuttlebutt from them is that many of them are really struggling with the required technology, while others are simply procrastinating. Hopefully those issues will resolve, and soon.


Agreed and understand. Not upset with them, more concerned with a son who I don't want to fall out of the study habits anymore than a usual spring break.
 

CycloneErik

Well-Known Member
Jan 31, 2008
105,669
49,473
113
Jamerica
rememberingdoria.wordpress.com
Had to do a parent move last night. Too much activity for the oldest to get classwork done. I had instill a basic dead week type atmosphere at the house. From 9-12 and 1-3 its quiet time. I also told the son to get his rear end out of bed and do work from 8 am on. Told him its quiet because his siblings are asleep at that time. He went for a run at 8:15 and seems to be following that schedule.

Only one person isn't really following it and its the wife. At least she takes a lot of naps so it will be somewhat decent. At first it looked like a great semester to take 18 credits, now it doesn't look that way. Some of his instructors have nothing up yet so that will get difficult to catch up on maybe.

Here's a glimpse into just one day's chaos (yesterday) with the adjustment:
1. T.A. totally blew off my instructions for a simple assignment. I told him what I wanted, why, and stressed the fact that we're not increasing the workload for people now. So he created instead an essay assignment. I unpublished that, put up the assignment I wanted, and fought that out over e-mail in an uncompromising way. We'll be doing that again.

2. My Internet is wholly insufficient for uploading videos, so I really need to look at how to break things down further, and probably include linked videos more than videos created by me.

3. Phone solution for taping is done. Ran out of memory last night, but didn't know until after recording Part III of the class, so phone went ahead and deleted Part III. Gotta redo that today.

4. Gut feeling from the heat of the phone last night: it neededa break, so I'm uploading much later than planned or desired.

5. I still need to write the revised exam that goes live on Monday.

6. I still need to do an entirely different breakdown of the course material to adapt to the new environment with what I've learned.

7. I'll need to use my laptop for recording. That may or may not work, and equipment isn't available at any reasonable price to make a substitution. Essentially, what i have works or we're SOL as a group for now while I find new, creative ways around the problems.

8. There really isn't time to work around the problems, because we're this late in the semester. It's far from ideal.

All these scenarios from one day in the life of someone who got ahead of the curve in his planning and resourcing, and someone who understands technology.
My understanding of these things tends to be a lot better than my colleagues, and my obsession with planning is a lot greater. For all that, I'm sitting on a ******** right now.

I'm pretty sure that my issues are a pretty small version of what others are facing, and mine are bad. I'll speculate that less than 1% are procrastinating, but none of us really know what we need to do yet to do this well, or even just passably.
 

madguy30

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2011
49,845
46,584
113
Here's a glimpse into just one day's chaos (yesterday) with the adjustment:
1. T.A. totally blew off my instructions for a simple assignment. I told him what I wanted, why, and stressed the fact that we're not increasing the workload for people now. So he created instead an essay assignment. I unpublished that, put up the assignment I wanted, and fought that out over e-mail in an uncompromising way. We'll be doing that again.

2. My Internet is wholly insufficient for uploading videos, so I really need to look at how to break things down further, and probably include linked videos more than videos created by me.

3. Phone solution for taping is done. Ran out of memory last night, but didn't know until after recording Part III of the class, so phone went ahead and deleted Part III. Gotta redo that today.

4. Gut feeling from the heat of the phone last night: it neededa break, so I'm uploading much later than planned or desired.

5. I still need to write the revised exam that goes live on Monday.

6. I still need to do an entirely different breakdown of the course material to adapt to the new environment with what I've learned.

7. I'll need to use my laptop for recording. That may or may not work, and equipment isn't available at any reasonable price to make a substitution. Essentially, what i have works or we're SOL as a group for now while I find new, creative ways around the problems.

8. There really isn't time to work around the problems, because we're this late in the semester. It's far from ideal.

All these scenarios from one day in the life of someone who got ahead of the curve in his planning and resourcing, and someone who understands technology.
My understanding of these things tends to be a lot better than my colleagues, and my obsession with planning is a lot greater. For all that, I'm sitting on a ******** right now.

I'm pretty sure that my issues are a pretty small version of what others are facing, and mine are bad. I'll speculate that less than 1% are procrastinating, but none of us really know what we need to do yet to do this well, or even just passably.

RE: 1; why in the actual **** can't people keep these sorts of things as simple as possible, especially when the situation calls for it and it was directed?

It's like the person that writes a 3 paragraph email when the message is 'Hey, can you please bring down some paper? The copier is out. Thanks.'
 

Ms3r4ISU

Me: Mea culpa. Also me: Sine cura sis.
Staff member
Bookie
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
May 7, 2008
11,545
7,092
113
Ames
Are you on Wendy W's all-ISU email list? She sent out the employee survey note today asking for people to complete it by 10 p.m. this Friday. I can share my "click here to take the Survey" link if you need it.
Not sure what to expect from someone who still writes "click here to ..." and then capitalizes Survey. Whoever writes her stuff is not the laser-focused grammar person that KC and I each are. :)


Here's a glimpse into just one day's chaos (yesterday) with the adjustment:
1. T.A. totally blew off my instructions for a simple assignment. I told him what I wanted, why, and stressed the fact that we're not increasing the workload for people now. So he created instead an essay assignment. I unpublished that, put up the assignment I wanted, and fought that out over e-mail in an uncompromising way. We'll be doing that again.

2. My Internet is wholly insufficient for uploading videos, so I really need to look at how to break things down further, and probably include linked videos more than videos created by me.

3. Phone solution for taping is done. Ran out of memory last night, but didn't know until after recording Part III of the class, so phone went ahead and deleted Part III. Gotta redo that today.

4. Gut feeling from the heat of the phone last night: it neededa break, so I'm uploading much later than planned or desired.

5. I still need to write the revised exam that goes live on Monday.

6. I still need to do an entirely different breakdown of the course material to adapt to the new environment with what I've learned.

7. I'll need to use my laptop for recording. That may or may not work, and equipment isn't available at any reasonable price to make a substitution. Essentially, what i have works or we're SOL as a group for now while I find new, creative ways around the problems.

8. There really isn't time to work around the problems, because we're this late in the semester. It's far from ideal.

All these scenarios from one day in the life of someone who got ahead of the curve in his planning and resourcing, and someone who understands technology.
My understanding of these things tends to be a lot better than my colleagues, and my obsession with planning is a lot greater. For all that, I'm sitting on a ******** right now.

I'm pretty sure that my issues are a pretty small version of what others are facing, and mine are bad. I'll speculate that less than 1% are procrastinating, but none of us really know what we need to do yet to do this well, or even just passably.
 
  • Funny
Reactions: ImJustKCClone

Cyclones_R_GR8

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Feb 10, 2007
22,573
24,033
113
Omaha
Here's a glimpse into just one day's chaos (yesterday) with the adjustment:
1. T.A. totally blew off my instructions for a simple assignment. I told him what I wanted, why, and stressed the fact that we're not increasing the workload for people now. So he created instead an essay assignment. I unpublished that, put up the assignment I wanted, and fought that out over e-mail in an uncompromising way. We'll be doing that again.

2. My Internet is wholly insufficient for uploading videos, so I really need to look at how to break things down further, and probably include linked videos more than videos created by me.

3. Phone solution for taping is done. Ran out of memory last night, but didn't know until after recording Part III of the class, so phone went ahead and deleted Part III. Gotta redo that today.

4. Gut feeling from the heat of the phone last night: it neededa break, so I'm uploading much later than planned or desired.

5. I still need to write the revised exam that goes live on Monday.

6. I still need to do an entirely different breakdown of the course material to adapt to the new environment with what I've learned.

7. I'll need to use my laptop for recording. That may or may not work, and equipment isn't available at any reasonable price to make a substitution. Essentially, what i have works or we're SOL as a group for now while I find new, creative ways around the problems.

8. There really isn't time to work around the problems, because we're this late in the semester. It's far from ideal.

All these scenarios from one day in the life of someone who got ahead of the curve in his planning and resourcing, and someone who understands technology.
My understanding of these things tends to be a lot better than my colleagues, and my obsession with planning is a lot greater. For all that, I'm sitting on a ******** right now.

I'm pretty sure that my issues are a pretty small version of what others are facing, and mine are bad. I'll speculate that less than 1% are procrastinating, but none of us really know what we need to do yet to do this well, or even just passably.
I'm sure someone that has been lecturing for the last 20 years is going to struggle with all of a sudden needing to upload videos of their lectures. I work in the tech industry and it's incredible with how much people struggle with stuff like that.
 

CycloneErik

Well-Known Member
Jan 31, 2008
105,669
49,473
113
Jamerica
rememberingdoria.wordpress.com
Are you on Wendy W's all-ISU email list? She sent out the employee survey note today asking for people to complete it by 10 p.m. this Friday. I can share my "click here to take the Survey" link if you need it.
Not sure what to expect from someone who still writes "click here to ..." and then capitalizes Survey. Whoever writes her stuff is not the laser-focused grammar person that KC and I each are. :)

I am. I responded, and included insufficient Internet twice on there.
 

CycloneErik

Well-Known Member
Jan 31, 2008
105,669
49,473
113
Jamerica
rememberingdoria.wordpress.com
RE: 1; why in the actual **** can't people keep these sorts of things as simple as possible, especially when the situation calls for it and it was directed?

It's like the person that writes a 3 paragraph email when the message is 'Hey, can you please bring down some paper? The copier is out. Thanks.'

He felt it was busywork that wouldn't prepare them for their exam.
It's extra funny for me, because this is the first time as a T.A. that he's put anything on Canvas. I walked him through basic steps on Sunday (as I learned them).

I talked him down from increased grading requirements for the essay part of the exam. As far as I know, I made it clear that we're not adding requirements for format, increased content, just keeping it simple per the rubric that we already published and promised.

Now, what happens is another matter. This isn't really a new situation.
 

BCClone

Well Seen Member.
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Sep 4, 2011
61,414
55,962
113
Not exactly sure.
Here's a glimpse into just one day's chaos (yesterday) with the adjustment:
1. T.A. totally blew off my instructions for a simple assignment. I told him what I wanted, why, and stressed the fact that we're not increasing the workload for people now. So he created instead an essay assignment. I unpublished that, put up the assignment I wanted, and fought that out over e-mail in an uncompromising way. We'll be doing that again.

2. My Internet is wholly insufficient for uploading videos, so I really need to look at how to break things down further, and probably include linked videos more than videos created by me.

3. Phone solution for taping is done. Ran out of memory last night, but didn't know until after recording Part III of the class, so phone went ahead and deleted Part III. Gotta redo that today.

4. Gut feeling from the heat of the phone last night: it neededa break, so I'm uploading much later than planned or desired.

5. I still need to write the revised exam that goes live on Monday.

6. I still need to do an entirely different breakdown of the course material to adapt to the new environment with what I've learned.

7. I'll need to use my laptop for recording. That may or may not work, and equipment isn't available at any reasonable price to make a substitution. Essentially, what i have works or we're SOL as a group for now while I find new, creative ways around the problems.

8. There really isn't time to work around the problems, because we're this late in the semester. It's far from ideal.

All these scenarios from one day in the life of someone who got ahead of the curve in his planning and resourcing, and someone who understands technology.
My understanding of these things tends to be a lot better than my colleagues, and my obsession with planning is a lot greater. For all that, I'm sitting on a ******** right now.

I'm pretty sure that my issues are a pretty small version of what others are facing, and mine are bad. I'll speculate that less than 1% are procrastinating, but none of us really know what we need to do yet to do this well, or even just passably.


Definitely understand. Like I said to KC, I'm just more concerned about the situation. I know, and figured, there would be issues on the front side. When you (my son) are on the backside and are uncertain how this will work, the wait and lack of knowledge can get you nervous. He did very well first semester and was sitting on As andBs so far and I would love for him to still have that at semester end and not have to do a bunch of pass/fail.

Hope everything straightens out and becomes as normal as possible.
 

CycloneErik

Well-Known Member
Jan 31, 2008
105,669
49,473
113
Jamerica
rememberingdoria.wordpress.com
Definitely understand. Like I said to KC, I'm just more concerned about the situation. I know, and figured, there would be issues on the front side. When you (my son) are on the backside and are uncertain how this will work, the wait and lack of knowledge can get you nervous. He did very well first semester and was sitting on As andBs so far and I would love for him to still have that at semester end and not have to do a bunch of pass/fail.

Hope everything straightens out and becomes as normal as possible.

As for my class, they don't know yet, but they can pretty much count on a point bonus coming their way.
Students have been great in their patience and help in troubleshooting. Stuff they've provided has helped me to fix things quickly.

I'm seeing today on Twitter that some are doing virtual office hours/google meetings and stuff. I'm wondering about making that an option, or maybe offering an optional (!!!!!) study meeting online, but I'm not quite sure.

Daughter gets extra anxious and amped up at taping time, so I'm not sure that meeting would be a good idea.

Oh, and I noted all that on the survey. I think the move was the right decision, but resources for contingent faculty like me are a nightmare.
 

Ms3r4ISU

Me: Mea culpa. Also me: Sine cura sis.
Staff member
Bookie
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
May 7, 2008
11,545
7,092
113
Ames
Regarding the pass/fail: has ISU said anything about changing the number of credits allowed to be counted under that? I thought there was a limit.
 

CycloneErik

Well-Known Member
Jan 31, 2008
105,669
49,473
113
Jamerica
rememberingdoria.wordpress.com
Also, just beating a personal hobby horse, the whole thing is a good reminder for me how badly the adjunct situation works for, well, nothing.
If I had a real salary, or were a real employee, I'd either have the money to go get proper resources, a space to use, or university resources. As it is, it's up to me to figure stuff out with none of that. I don't like that a whole lot.
 

Ms3r4ISU

Me: Mea culpa. Also me: Sine cura sis.
Staff member
Bookie
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
May 7, 2008
11,545
7,092
113
Ames
Was supposed to have a hair appt tomorrow evening. Knew at least a week ago that the school closed for a couple of weeks, and they'd said they were contacting people with appts to reschedule. Finally got my call this afternoon. Rescheduled for April 23. Sure hope that's possible. My hair is gonna be so much longer by then.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.