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Writing alongside our students
DR ALAN finkel
Australia's Chief Scientist
In recent weeks I have had to change how I work. It has been unavoidable.
The spread of COVID-19 in our community has meant that I, too, have been working from home, remaining isolated from all but my wife.
Normally, I would be out in the world, meeting with people and making connections wherever I go. Visiting schools and businesses, talking with researchers, and sharing experiences about the work of Australian scientists and engineers.
But instead, I am now meeting on various digital platforms and keeping connected as Australia’s Chief Scientist.
At first, it was difficult. I found it hard to adjust. Everything was new.
The experience was not natural and free-flowing like a normal conversation. Sometimes, the Wi-Fi dropped out, or I needed to find a password, and most importantly I had to remember that it wasn’t a phone call. People could see me. Was my hair neat? But gradually, I have become used to it and have been grateful for this new way of being connected. I particularly like the mute button.
It has led me to recall my first exposure to video conferencing, back in 1974 when I was a PhD student in Melbourne. One of my lecturers had just returned from a year working abroad to develop a video conferencing system for Bell Labs, the US telecommunications giant. It was early days, and I was not impressed by the progress.
Even as recently as a year ago I still wasn’t impressed by video conferencing. But today, almost fifty years after I first saw the prototype, through initiative, innovation and investment, huge advances have been made in these technologies. The combination of vastly improved video conferencing software, broadband networks and high resolution cameras have meant that when we needed it to work, it did. And that investment in research and development over many years has helped us to adjust to the required change in our circumstances.
My sense is that the adoption of video conferencing and virtual meetings will be a permanent change to keep our society better connected. And that’s a good thing.
Yet I do look forward to the chance to roam again, in the wild, more freely.
Dr BRAD TUCKER
Astrophysicist
Space both makes us feel connected to something bigger, and yet far from it. I look for stars exploding in distant galaxies, millions to billions of light years away. And yet, when I see them, it is actually looking into the past, millions to billions of years ago. I can never truly connect with what is in space, just what was in space. Even when we (safely) look at the Sun, it takes 8 minutes for the light to reach us - we see it as it was 8 minutes ago.
We are lucky to be able to connect during this time. We can use the great Australian invention, wi-fi, to connect to people, places, and information, all around the world (and even other worlds) nearly instantaneously.
In fact, we live in the most connected time in the 4.5-billion-year history of the Earth, and it offers us amazing opportunities. We can connect to maps and browse distant locations, like we are there in person. We can connect to online libraries and read books written both last year and last century. We can connect to online TV and watch our favorite shows and movies.
I connect to cameras on the International Space Station and see Earth from above. I regularly connect to large telescopes, all around the world using the internet, to view distant exploding stars and black holes. I connect to meetings at 6am, 10pm, and in between, to talk to fellow astrophysicists all around the world and discuss the latest results.
And yet, I really just want to go outside and play soccer with my friends.
In Astronomy, over the past 5 to 10 years, we have been making telescopes remote or robotic, so that we don’t have to travel to use them. I can log onto telescopes in Chile from my office, or telescopes at Siding Spring Observatory which is in northern New South Wales, from the comfort of my couch. Not only does it make it more convenient to use, but we can reduce pollution by limiting the amount we travel.
We naturally cannot go up and look through telescopes in space. Big radio telescopes, like at the NASA Tidbinbilla Deep Space Tracking Station outside Canberra connect to them, and transfer the data and images to big computers we log into and use. We have also been moving our images to websites were anyone can access and browse. This has allowed people from all over the world, from students younger than you, to your grandparents, to help us look find new things in the Universe.
In a way, Astronomy has been preparing itself to connect with the Universe during this time. It has meant that while the Earth seemingly has slowed down, we can keep up with the Universe which keeps going.
I hope we can use this time, and this philosophy, to find a way to make sure we can connect more of the world, so no-one is left unconnected.
CAROLINE SCHULTZ
Science Teacher
I am from the UK and many of my family still live there so I have had to find different ways to connect to them over the years rather than seeing them face-to-face in person. I had an extra challenge during this pandemic though, I was getting married the day that the Prime Minister announced weddings were only allowed 5 people.
We needed the celebrant to carry out the ceremony, we had booked a photographer, my husband and myself obviously needed to attend - this meant we could invite only one person. We decided to set up a video call for our families in Australia and UK and they all watched online, throwing confetti from their computers!
Though it would have been nice to see everyone in person I’m happy that we still got to see all the family online and make memories. Here is a photograph of the computer set up with the video call of our ceremony.
JONATHAN MCCASKILL
Science Teacher
As a people person I was initially worried about how I would deal with not being able to connect with others in person. While I look forward to social interactions returning to normal, I discovered there were a number of benefits to this situation.
I learned to use (and be comfortable with) a variety of video conferencing tools. I learned to be more flexible with how I designed and delivered lessons to my students. I discovered just how many science experiments were possible to conduct with nothing more than everyday household items. My students learned (often faster than me) how to adapt to use technology to connect with their peers and teachers for both learning and socialisation. But perhaps my favourite part of this time was seeing how my students were able to spend more time with their family and share their learning process with them. Education, in some ways, became less separated from real/home life as students got time to experiment at home, get outside in their own garden and involve their families in the learning experience.
Personally I also liked that life seemed to slow down a little, and in some ways gave me more time and energy to connect with others even if it was through technology rather than in person. I look forward to returning to normal, seeing friends in large groups, sharing the thrill of a sporting match or concert with a crowd, but I hope that we all remember the lessons and positive aspects of our time in isolation and come out of this better than we went in.
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