Post date: Aug 11, 2020 5:11:58 AM
so i worry ..
.. well, i have worries like everyone else who's not in a retreat and knows the new world (dis)order.
i don't worry all the time, b
ut often enough so that i realise:
i worry more than i used to worry don't i?
i probably worry, mostly about the same things that everyone does.
in other words, i'm not special ..
there is no average person, of course, but many concerns in a society are common to its members, provided that a society is not overly stratified.
on a related note: most of the time, my students make the same categorical errors and that i know they will probably make them, that i will warn them in advance, and that some of them will make those errors anyway, which means that i have to deduct from their grades, to be fair [0].
but i digress ..
in an unconscious act of doomscrolling i clicked on cory's post about online proctoring and then the linked article (see, prestigious source: don't worry!) and i had a moment.
fvck.
software possibly tested on only white people. [1]
i remember this past spring, being on a zoom call with one of my students.
i could hear an infant in the background. she spent 60 seconds on video where i could see surroundings, then it panned up towards the ceiling that reminded me of the speed of sound [2]. the rest of the conversation was spent with my video of her chin. i didn't ask that she change her camera view because .. i suspected that she didn't want to, for her reasons, and i didn't want to know the answer.
this was a very "real" moment for me, because i haven't faced anywhere near such hardship that was suggested by this student. it changed how i think about online learning, and about equity.
also: TIL that equity ≠equality.
...
to quote Rousseau, who in turn quotes Solon:
growing older,
i learn all the time.
may i continue learning for the rest of my days.
...
[0] .. even though they might have honestly been listening at the time but went on exam-mode-panic and suffered #temporary-insanity-because-test!!!
[1] usual disclaimer: no, i am not deliberately slandering anyone. i only want to be fair and i want everyone to be fairly treated. please don't sue.
[2] i dislike hyperbole, which is why i didn't write "towards the ceiling at the speed of light."