Off Line from No Line to On Line
By sheer luck, my institution’s quarterly academic schedule, coupled with adjustments by its administration, provides a whole month to move instruction out of classrooms and into the aether, but is with a late surprise from the State’s Governor.
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1 No Line By sheer luck, my institution’s quarterly academic schedule, coupled with adjustments by its administration, provides a whole month to move instruction out of classrooms and into the aether, but is with a late surprise from the State’s Governor. Near the end of winter quarter, on Thursday 5 March 2020, the University cancels instruction and final examinations in classrooms and offices for the last week of the quarter, which would be 16–20 March. Again by sheer luck, that evening comes an unrelated invitation to drop in at the Instructional Technology unit. So the next day I drop in and get a quick but very useful introduction to a system called Canvas. On Wednesday 11 March, the University mandates instruction to occur fully on line in the spring quarter, with its start delayed by one week, to 6 April. I have never taught anything on line. Fortunately, a guardian angel comes to the rescue. My colleague Becky Sommers is the director of a lab that routinely holds meetings on line through something called Zoom, and invites us who have not taught on line to participate in such meetings as an introduction to Zoom. There we discover how to go to break-out rooms, mute participants, and share screens. Now being confident that I can be a remote talking head, on Friday 20 March, after turning in my grades, I take the opportunity to get some exercise over the weekend, camping and cross-country skiing on the last skiable snows up in the North Cascades. Back at the office, on Monday 23 March, a message from the University relays that the Governor’s Stay Home Stay Healthy orders take effect in 48 hours. That means teaching on line but not from the office. I don’t have access to the Internet of anything and spotty cellular coverage at home. I am now asking friends about their
Y. Nievergelt (*) Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 A. Wonders (ed.) Math in the Time of Corona, Mathematics Online First Collections, https://doi.org/10.1007/16618_2020_14
Y. Nievergelt
experience with various carriers and frantically searching for things called modem and hot spot. I’m investigating everything from land lines and underwater cables to satellites and smoke signals, eventually settling for and ordering a connection from one carrier. From another carrier, I order a cell phone service with a hot spot and no limits on data, because I’m not sure yet from where I’ll be broadcasting. On the last day of freedom, Wednesday 25 March, from the office I take home the desktop computer and as many books and notes that will fit in a car. The next day, a technician comes in and connects the house to the Internet of everything. At home a week later, I email my classes to announce a test run for the next day. On Thursday 2 April at 10 a.m. the connection proves sufficiently fast and reliable!
2 Off Line Thanks to the U.S. Postal Service, there is no need to leave the house for six weeks, after which time the Governor’s orders ease up
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