Perhaps like many of you, I am entering month two of captivity. Weekly, with masked face and gloved hands, I venture from my golden cage to face the perils of grocery shopping. Much of the rest of the time, I stare into my computer screen or out the window.
It's not a bad prison, certainly not compared to real prisoners in too close contact in unhealthy lockups, or the homeless who have no place to hide, or even the lawn care workers who, from my window, I still see tending my yard.
I also see housekeepers and nannies-those not laid off. Across from me, a house is going up; construction workers, faces unmasked, are working too closely together. I have a job, a steady paycheck, and a bank account, but these people must put themselves and their families at risk every day. They must ride public transportation, find someone to look after their kids, stand six feet apart in lines at the food bank, and wait for promised government support. Those are the lucky ones, those who still have jobs.
I, like you, read of nursing home overrun with the virus and short on staff who themselves worry about infecting their families. I read of countries, particularly in Africa, that are totally ill-equipped for the crisis befalling them.
But we also witness the miracle of digital technology that allows many of us to stay in, and hopefully prop up, the economy from the safety of our homes. The internet is holding up! Zoom and Teams power our classrooms. Google and Apple collaborated to develop apps to track and alert us if we are exposed to C-19. A 17-year old kid scrapes screens to create a repository of C-19 data. Another kid uses a 3D printer to make surgical masks more wearable and has already printed 500. I instantly pass the news to a friend with a 3D printer. She had already downloaded the plans and was about to deliver 100 to nearby health facilities.
Almost hourly, I see Amazon trucks coming down the street, fulfilling even more of our everyday needs-needs no longer met by the shuttered retail shops a few blocks from my home. I see too a vibrant gig economy in the myriad of cars delivering meals to my neighbors.
Like you, I ask myself: What can I do? What can we do? How can we help others deal with today? How can we quickly share the successes? Can we help to envision and shape the post pandemic system of higher education?
Hopefully this forum can be a useful tool. A way to weave together the AIS global constituency so as to address the challenges we face and to shape this emerging new face for higher education.
We hope you will join us-as reader or contributor. We ask you to keep your posts no longer than this one (about 500 words) and help us to avoid political squabbles. If you are reluctant to post but have something to say, you can email one of us.
We hope to meet you at the forum!
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Blake Ives
bives@mac.com------------------------------