Camosun response to Covid-19 on target

The safety and the wellbeing of those who walk Camosun's campuses are every bit as important than ever before. Moving from in-class instruction to on-line is the best response by Camosun College, to the Covid-19 virus pandemic, that is sweeping the world. Naysayers will argue moving from in-class instruction is going to hurt student learning. Students will not get the best education they require. It is no ordinary time. There is a worldwide crisis. No one is immune. If that means closing the college and going to on-line instruction. So be it.

Camosun College is a mini global community, where each program is like a different country. The students are the citizens. The Covid-19 virus does not discriminate between borders. If Camosun didn't execute these changes when it did, it wouldn't be if Covid-19 comes to Camosun, but when. It is better to be safe than sorry. Although a major disruption, the move to online instruction is the best. I do not want to worry, whether when my classmates or myself encounter this virus.

I must admit I am concerned about how on-line would affect my hands-on learning, especially in my Digital Production class. The class requires students to work in groups and to produce video work. Students sign out camera kits, audio equipment, tripods to help them create their work. Not having access to the devices makes it difficult to do any group project. I am wrong to think I need the equipment to learn. Ingenuity is what makes things happen. Fortunately, we have a whole college of instructors. Look at Camosun's Facebook page. There is a photo of a carpentry teacher applying online teaching to first-year trade students. There are other instructors, like those who teach in the Communications department. They are working with the college's IT support, to make the course requirements available students off-campus. But what about the students who depended on using the computers at school to do the course work? How do they access the on-line learning now? The college library has an answer to that question. They are lending out laptops for students to finish their course work.

But what about how the college prepares us to be responsible by showing up to class? How are we to do that if our instruction is only on-line? How does this affect my attendance? Yes, school is like a business. The students are the employees. Like any work environment, there is a contract between the school and the student to show up to class. College prepares us by making us responsible for ourselves and our instructors. But is that reality? Not everyone will be working in an office behind a desk or on a job site. The truth of the matter is that there is no one way or right way to learn. To help, the college has ten tips for working remotely. Students can access these tips by this link: https://bit.ly/3ddQkNf. Even if you do have the discipline of showing up on-line, there is something in those ten tips for everyone.

As I write this, I feel as if I am a character in a science fiction movie. As more and more Canadians are affected by this virus, it is prudent that everyone is self-isolating and practicing social distancing. Moving instruction to on-line, the college did the right thing: Forcing us to stay home.

Free Tuition

It’s not cheap going to school; it can be downright expensive. Especially if there is rent, and bills to pay and the cost of putting food on the table. Free tuition would eliminate the stress caused by going to getting a post-secondary education. The burden of tuition on students is crippling, says Anissa Calma-Brown in her special report in the Financial Post. “The average tuition cost for a Canadian university — before the cost of books, travel and supplies — is $6,500 per year. Higher-cost programs can range anywhere from $8,000-$22,000 per year.”

So why put yourself through that financial burden? Why not just go and get a job? Well, it’s not that easy and those jobs? In my opinion, offer no stability and pay only minimum wage. However, if one wants to get ahead, post-secondary education is essential to acquiring a better salary. But how do you pay for it? If you are lucky, you may get money as a gift from your parents. You may use the savings you have put away for that rainy day. The other way is to take out a student loan. It is that loan debt, that according to an article by Robert T. Muller, Ph.D. in Psychology Today, says is “why students are struggling to cope with rising tuition costs and high debt loads.”

For some, like those who are in low paying jobs, post-secondary education is reserved only for the rich. The only resource for low-income earners is to apply for a government student loan and become a financial slave. According to Calma-Brown, the “current liberal government has written off 200 million dollars in student loans.” Those loans are what concerns Dan Allan, the Director of the Student Budget Consultation Program, according to Calma-Brown’s article believes “their biggest concern is whether the cost of education is worth the burden that comes with student loans.”

Eliminating tuition would mean no more loans. Students at graduation could pursue a career in their field of study instead of focusing on paying off their student debt. They could buy a house, start a family and feel like they are a contributing members of society and not just a drain on the economy.

Analyzing a Blog

Stop Talking!

Ostrom

January 15, 2020

In the article “Because Reading is Fundamental,” Jeff Atwood argues the need for reading to encourage the necessities of listening. The article aims to focus on an audience of men and women between the ages of 30-55 with post-education, with moderate to high paying jobs, because of the two studies and the grammar used in the article. However, the focus of the article can easily be understood to promote the benefits of reading to all educational and occupational levels. It is also for those who are posting without reading the full article. It is about validating those lurkers who read in silence.

The article drew me in because of its title. It had an answer, but what was the question? The only way for me to learn was to read the article in its entirety. It was direct and to the point from the very beginning to the very end. It wasn’t just about reading the article but about being critical and asking questions of the viewer.

Jeff Atwood's thesis is too much talking/writing and not enough listening/reading. He sees the need of some people to post comments even before reaching the end of a post as being negative. It is a theory that is supported by two types of research in the article.

The first comprising of the "Ars Banana" experiment, where users reading the article Guns at home more likely to be used stupidly than in self-defence, were asked to make a “banana” comment when they reached the seventh paragraph on the eleventh page.  It took until the 93rd post on the third page of comments someone commented “bananas”. Emphasizing how articles are not read for its content, but its click-bait title.

The Slate experiment challenges us to read the article to the end, however, at the same time telling us that we won’t finish 50% of the article because of someone commenting. This theory points out that incentivize talking is a problem and that there needs to be more incentivize listening instead. Which makes the fact that analytics need to stop penalizing the lurkers and make them just as important as any post counts.

Atwood suggests making the reading of online articles easier for the user is to do it in the following four ways.

1.                  Remove interruptions such as paginating. 

2.                  Measure read times and display them.

3.                  Give rewards for reading.

4.                  Update in real-time. 

Reading is fundamental and without it, conversations will have no critical discourse and become disconnected words without meaning. The influence of fake news and the armchair expert who makes assumptions from what he/she sees on the internet is why reading and listening are essential. Perhaps by making reading and listening more attractive, the misinterpretations and inaccuracies posts will become less and less a problem.

Bikes bite back

515,980 trips were recorded along Victoria’s Pandora and Fort Street protected bike lanes between 2018-2019 in a report by CTV Vancouver Island News, May 2019, disproving the pesky theory protected bike is killing businesses. The removal of parking spaces to make way for the bike lanes is the number one reason why businesses are losing business. This argument is not only misguided but also lacks facts. Not only do protected bike lanes encourage people to cycle or walk they also shop and spend more on a month than those who drive their cars. According to a 2019 article by The Journal of American Planners: Measuring the Local Economic Impacts of Replacing On-Street Parking with Bike Lanes the decrease in street parking not only disproved the argument that bike lanes would have a negative economic impact on the economy on retailers along Toronto, Canada’s Bloor Street.  It showed that the protected bike lane increased business revenue with an increase in pedestrian traffic. According to the Victoria Transport Policy, Todd Litman states improving the benefits of non-motorized transportation like cycling and walking increased revenues for local businesses. Although those who drove spend more on average on one trip; it is those who travel by non-motorized transportation who spend more overall in a month on the local economy.

In his book, The High Cost of Free Parking, Donald Shoup argues,”30 percent of the cars in congested traffic were cruising for parking like hawks looking for prey.” If this is the case, then time wasted is spent on parking and less on actual spending refuting the notion that increased parking improves business. 

Finally, to emphasize the impact cycling has on the economy one just must look at how Dobosala Cantina and Ride-thru embraced the protected bike lane by including a take-out window for cyclists on Pandora Street corridor. Not only is this business still thriving today in 2019 it was awarded “Best World Food” by Yam Magazine.

Expand away and keep those protected bike-lanes coming. 

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National Widget Company

NEWS RELEASE

DATE January 17, 2020

EMPLOYEES RETURN TO WORK

Fifty Victorians are returning back to their jobs after a six-month layoff.  President Andrew Bryce said “We have sent recall notices to all employees who were laid off in June. As a family-owned company, it was heartbreaking to lay off so many loyal people so we are thrilled to be offering employment to people we consider part of the family.”

During the last six months since the layoffs, the sale of widgets has increased steadily. Although the traditional markets for widgets have been in the Middle East, The National Widget company has been diligently working towards establishing new markets. “The increase in sales has been unprecedented. We think this opportunity opens up enormous markets which will last for years.”

National Widget Company is the first widget company to make a deal with the Chinese.  “The opening up of the Chinese residential market represents opportunity and a secure market on which to expand our capacity,” said President Andrew Bryce.

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For more information, Contact (Linda Ostrom) at (250-555-5555)