This is The Spaces in Between, a weekly newsletter on culture, language, and technology written by Stephan Caspar. If you’re new here, then welcome, feel free to subscribe.
The sun is streaming through the blinds this early morning as I write. The weather is a little bumpy this time of year, so after last weekend’s sunshine, sitting in shorts having lunch outside, it snowed yesterday and we’re waking up to a layer of the white stuff and a return to seasonal warmth after a big dip in temperature.
It’s been a good week, an even teaching load, and a deadline for a paper, but otherwise unremarkable, thank you. The boys have a short break from school, so sleeping in, playing computer games, and playing footy (soccer) when the weather allows.
The stop-start of Spring makes me impatient for the long sunshine days of Summer, perhaps this year more than ever. Last weekend, when temperatures rose, the boys asked if I could fill the small soft-sided pool that we bought last year. Not yet I’m afraid.
So, how are you? Are you doing okay? Have you had your vaccine yet?
It seems every day that we’re reading about more states opening up availability and this week the university arranged appointments for faculty and staff. I think that almost everyone in the first category who wanted a vaccine has received one and now we’re moving through the other groups, including teachers, child care workers, and first responders (although seems crazy they weren’t all in the top tier).
It is a race to get jabs in arms and get ahead of a rise in new cases.
Stephan
Teaching & Learning
We talked about MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) in our LangTech class and it was interesting to see how the most followed subjects have placed in popularity during the pandemic. In some ways, it’s easy to see why subjects in Art & Design, Humanities, and Language Learning have jumped into the top ten, as people have used online learning to keep busy or try something new. In fact, there’s so much of a climb that Class Central’s Dhawal Shah proclaimed 2020 as the new “Year of the MOOC”. Course providers have seen double or triple the number of registered users than in previous years.
As an educator working in the humanities, one that likes drawing…and is interested in personal development, it is exciting to see the changes to the league table. I’m hoping some of this interest lasts longer than lockdown. It is particularly pleasing to see Languages sneak in, and we know from the courses that we ran at the University of Southampton, that there is a pipeline from MOOC learners to undergraduate and graduate programs in languages, not huge numbers, but significant enough to give departments a small boost in enrollments.
I hope that institutions are aware of what’s going on, and while negative assumptions remain about MOOCs and the focus on enrollments and engagement data will always cloud the fact that significant investments are being made throughout the world, and that there are more courses than ever, and that new, well-funded providers are coming online. MOOCs aren’t going away, sure there are still questions to be asked, but as many of us know who have been involved in making them: these questions aren’t always the right ones.
Life Lessons
This next bit is a personal grumble, apologies.
Despite the nice weather at the start of the week, the sight of my younger kid struggling with the weight of his backpack was enough to sway me into giving him a lift to school in the car. We’re only a short walk from school, and I’m loath to join the go-zone, but somedays, with Trombone, laptop, water, books, and project materials, it is a wonder he can even stand up straight.
Why are backpacks still so heavy and why don’t parents buy trolley bags instead?
As a wider point, it just had me frustrated at why we keep ignoring the things that are wrong with school. It isn’t just backpacks or the half-term breaks that are such a relief and contribute to pupil wellbeing (and shorten the summer), but also the early starts, lack of physical activity, endless testing, and monitoring. There’s paper after paper bemoaning sedentary lifestyles and risk factors for children, or how later school start times benefit teenage sleep patterns, but it is all ignored.
And that’s even before we get to pedagogy, I really don’t understand some of the activities our kids are asked to do. Why isn’t there more project work, where are the opportunities for experiential learning? Come on, must do better.
It was interesting to read Secretary Miguel Cardona's interviewed in Education Week and hear him call for schools to make changes and “re-engage students in a community of learners.” Sure, but just as we’re being asked to trust the science on Covid, we need to ram home the same message to school boards, education departments on the evidence that supports good teaching and learning.
All this…over a backpack.
Lost and Found
Turning off your zoom video makes for a better meeting. I feel I’m waving a little white flag. It’s okay if you want to keep the camera off…*sigh
Since I turned off self-view in zoom my mood has improved. If you’re not sure how to do it, here’s the help page.
My colleagues in ML at CMU published a nice overview of the department’s activities.
The Podcast Project is an online resource from Saint Louis University, with a series of lessons in French and Spanish. Great write-up in FLTMag which has a weekly newsletter of new and interesting projects.
Automated caption creation popped up on Instagram this week, which is a new feature in Stories similar to those in IGTV videos, supporting 16 different languages. These accessibility features have always been useful to language learners and instructors, especially when editing videos or creating learning objects. It is worth looking at video captioning apps such as MixCaptions or Subtitles which work for iOS and use dictation or auto-generation rather than needing to type.
If you want to get closed captioning right - then this video by sound artist Christine Sun Kim should help - take a look at her incredible portfolio of projects, many in ASL.
Thank you
I hope that you’re having a good week. I’m on my second coffee, so from this point on, anything is possible.
I’m reading a wonderful collection of essays by writers at Wasafiri called Brave New Worlds: The Power of Writing Now which I heartedly recommend. These commentaries and calls for change, impassioned and imaginative words from such brilliant writers as Tabish Khair and Olumide Popoola. Enjoy.
The weekend is looking tasty, as long as the snow melts and the sun comes out, then I hope to be out riding my bike along the GAP (Great Allegheny Passage) and we hope one day we might even set out for Washington. It’s fun making plans.
So take care, speak soon and see you next week.
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I loved this issue!! Also I love Mr. Coconut! I hope you all are having a good time with him!