A better question might be, "how hasn't C-19 affected my life?" for truly, every aspect of life has been touched. Families were sequestered, school was remote, travel was out of the question, everything from groceries to toilet paper became an uncertainty. Likely this was the greatest affect to date, the feeling of free fall, the precarious nature of everything. In our home, both my wife and I went remote. Our school district shuttered up, and we suddenly had all four kids at home. The biggest shock was when our exchange student was yanked back to France months early.

In March, I subscribed to Johns-Hopkins daily updates on the global situation, but ultimately I found that (and the general flood of information) to be soul-crushing. It came to the point that I only cautiously sampled the bad news, and in spite of flourishing gestures at re-openings, I've yet to find much good news in the standard information stream. (So, we make our own good news, actively seeking out how we've adapted in positive ways, etc.)

Educators work in a service industry, and when we went remote, it was a dramatic about-face for all but the purely online instructors. In my role, faculty development, initially I never felt so needed. We rallied faculty to help one-another get tooled up for the transition. We worked long hours and dealt with a great deal of anxiety, but then, we were well positioned institutionally to slide over everything to Canvas. Our EdTech department seemed prescient, for they had been engineering master courses, requiring all faculty to have at least baseline skills in Canvas, and some good direction as to how to conduct oneself in this new world. Our IT department, likewise, seemed to have been preparing for this moment, building up infrastructure for these last few years. We had an institutional Zoom Pro account, standing training and support materials pre-built and ready to deploy. We had a faculty development initiative, and that, too, seemed to allow our college to pivot quickly and gracefully. Now, faculty are managing, doing their best, all things considered; however, there's less urgency in their training needs. It's enough to muddle through and make every concession to students--who themselves are beset with challenges they may not necessarily be mature enough to navigate. With all the on-going angst, my work life mantra has changed from "let's DO this," to "it will be okay."

From March through August, I was cloistered in a closet in our home, quite literally a closet with a blanket serving as a homespun green screen. I did have the forethought to bring home my stand up desk and massive monitor, though I sure missed my office chair. I am fortunate that this repurposed closet did have a window, so I had natural light and some plants and a grow light, all helping thwart claustrophobia and depression. My team met daily in zoom, kept zoom chat open, held virtual office hours, and in general stayed in touch.

We hosted a virtual training, Boot Up Camp, which helped 50 of our colleagues explore tools and techniques that might be useful in remote and fully-online instruction. I attended ASU's REMOTE conference and other webinars and workshops. I consumed and shared as much information as I could through May, then in June, I had two completely online courses. In them, I doubled-down on 'humanizing' my course environment. I employed FlipGrid and some discussion board innovations to bring class members together. Perhaps most valuable was to group and regroup students into triads every week, giving them a more intimate online experience and a bit of accountability to peers they reported was motivational.

Zoom, more than Teams or any other platform, has been a life saver. We quickly leveraged break out rooms and other tools (polls, chats, etc) to their limits. My team had to be one step ahead of general faculty, so we could help them explore the potential of Zoom for their own settings. By early April, we were emboldened to offer a college-wide in-service day that had more participants than our Zoom license would let attend (we capped at 300). That even, PJ Institutional Development Day, was wildly successful and encouraged many faculty as well as institutional support staff to meet more and more on the platform. Yes, it has been for the better. Ironically, working once-removed has brought a more immediate and intimate interface with faculty and students. A Zoom meeting is less difficult to breach than the office threshold for students, it seems. More faculty with pedagogical problems would visit us in Zoom than we ever had from walk-in traffic. I believe the convenience and intimacy of Zoom is making positive impact here.

Various faculty have employed a range of tools from simple Canvas notifications and announcements to Remind to Zoom. At Butler, we use a
student/case management tool, AVISO, to help connect efforts we may be making on reaching and retaining students. Unlike the random tools we might individually use, AVISO is bringing us into a concerted approach to student communication and support. At a personal level, I have redoubled efforts to stay in touch with my students. I have made myself as accessible as I can, releasing my standing Zoom room number, my cell phone number, and extending office hours far beyond conventional margins. I have answered questions and calls I would normally have let wait until Monday. In my opinion, the students are struggling more than I am (and I was out of commission for a month with C-19 myself), so I want to do all I can to mitigate their issues.

(As mentioned throughout) In my role as Director of Faculty Development, it's my daily challenge to engage with colleagues. Initially, they were beating down my door, while now they are very busy sustaining efforts to teach in these newfangled ways. Some of us go out of our ways to roam the halls, pop into offices, send more emails....and my department still hosts weekly and monthly virtual trainings that are well-attended. In ways, we believe we are providing a social service, for the trainings give people an excuse to come together. In short, however, I believe we all miss 'the old days.'

Canvas and Outlook integrations for Zoom, FlipGrid, etc. are helpful technologies. We have explored VoiceThread again, but we are trying not to overwhelm faculty with too many tools at once in this delicate time. We have a StarLink subscription and we attend so many virtual conferences! (This last aspect of pandemic protocol has really enhanced my participation in national conferences, when they're as convenient as my computer and generally inexpensive.)

When things go awry, I'm your guy. From flooding to death in the family to a pandemic, for some reason, when it all goes wonky, that's when I surprise myself by being at my best, flexible, innovative, empathetic... I have no explanation for this, but I'm glad I do this, when I feel like I'd rather just fold.

I gave up on prognostication this year. 2020 has shocked me into a tailspin. My best guess would be that the "new normal" will not look a whole lot different than now, which saddens me. I am concerned for so many aspects of our culture. I think small colleges will be boarded over like so many small businesses. I worry that young people won't grow up as socially adept as previous generations. All that said, I do believe in the resilience of our country and the enterprise of education. I think this reconfiguration will finally bring online learning into the limelight. I think MOOC's and micro-credentials will finally get the respect they deserve. I am sure adaptive learning and all the advantages of digital tools will be positively recognized at last. The strong, and nimble, will survive.

I will remember that magic moment in March when all the work I'd done since 2012 was undeniably evidenced: our faculty now works together well, setting aside vulnerabilities and reservations better than ever before. Our faculty answered my call to provide all manner of digital assists. That was so encouraging.

From Zoom to Grub-Hub, from drive-in Covid testing to retooling for respirators and PPE, I feel the US has been effective and innovative with this hardship. Streaming video services and online educational platforms are blossoming and meeting needs in new/different ways for new audiences. At the same time, I feel rural areas were under-served, and generally the socio-economic divides, the digital divide, became more pronounced than ever. If I had to navigate this again, I would be more faithful to journaling and reflecting. I would be more intentional about reaching out to people, even those who seem they have it all going on. I would be a better model for my children, my colleagues, my friends and family. I think we're prepared and informed by problems we've tackled...this time. What's going to happen when there's a digital virus, something like the Y2K scaremongering, only legitimate. What will we do when there's an EMP detonation that cripples our electronic infrastructure. We are not prepared for anything like that. We are not prepared for a grand scale hack of any kind. We need sheathing and shielding and new gear and tighter security protocol...but I'm waxing on now. Short of crouching down in giant Faraday cages, we simply need to be digitally vigilant.

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