Quote:
Originally Posted by M_Six
Don't laugh. It's practically the truth.  |
I know, which is why I made the ultimate pedagogy joke out of it!
Back in the late 1980's, I worked on a project with a PhD in Education where I put together a whole slew of modem-based tools and she taught non-credit certificate classes for remote students. The state's Education Department wanted nothing to do with "online" education for-credit certification, and treated it like postal-based correspondence courses. What I developed looked/functioned a *lot* like WebCT did about 5 years later when the world caught up.
I have been working in academia long enough to have battle stories about professors who refused to accept dot-matrix printed term papers claiming eye problems reading even 24-pin printouts, and another professor who made the faculty senate include a clause in their handbook declaring that email was not an official form of communication and they were not obligated to ever check it. Even though one is retired/emeritus and the other one is on his last year, I receive emails from both at least monthly.
On a happy note, I spent an afternoon about three years ago working with the tech person from an elementary school near where I work, setting up their Google Apps for Education web site for their teachers to experiment with. I received an email out of the blue yesterday from the principal of that school, thanking me for helping do that setup way back when. The teachers were all using it to interact with students and parents before COVID-geddon, and the principal was *extremely* thankful that I helped set it up way back when because their school was apparently the only one in the region that did not miss ONE MINUTE of instructional time converting from classroom to online elementary school instruction. They are even offering online art, music, and gym classes! Emails like this remind me about why I put up with the crappy pay and hassles of working in academia.
My only fear now is that with the pedagogical barriers removed due to the pandemic, students at all levels will never know the joy of a snow day ever again.....
