Thank you for an interesting newsletter. One aspect you might want to cover in a future issue is: how should we prepare business, public offices, and schools to operate remotely, befor the next time this happens? Schools are getting by with clunky, unsatisfactory platforms, repurposed from experimental learning (ill-prepared instructors struggle for example to show both themselves and the blackboard, and to keep up the interaction, especially with younger pupils who may not be self-motivated). Public servants - when they can - use remote working tools from the hell of public procurement, with obsolete specs and inadequate hardware, often left over from pilot programs that had lost urgency in the face of other priorities. Businesses - the ones with office workers - largely cope because they have newer solutions, such as BlueJeans and Zoom: these work, but they’re hardly a way to delight employees and build team spirit. And everybody is becoming hugely vulnerable to hackers, who must be having a field day already. How to we prepare a resilient learning and productivity infrastructure for the future?
The sad thing is that there probably isn’t enough long term value in a building something fantastic like this for schools, especially as most schools in most first world countries are all owned by the state.
Thank you for sharing your insights and research on this infection, Azeem. I have read that persons 60+ and those who are medically fragile appear to be most at risk for death. Perhaps nature is weeding us out.
Thank you for an interesting newsletter. One aspect you might want to cover in a future issue is: how should we prepare business, public offices, and schools to operate remotely, befor the next time this happens? Schools are getting by with clunky, unsatisfactory platforms, repurposed from experimental learning (ill-prepared instructors struggle for example to show both themselves and the blackboard, and to keep up the interaction, especially with younger pupils who may not be self-motivated). Public servants - when they can - use remote working tools from the hell of public procurement, with obsolete specs and inadequate hardware, often left over from pilot programs that had lost urgency in the face of other priorities. Businesses - the ones with office workers - largely cope because they have newer solutions, such as BlueJeans and Zoom: these work, but they’re hardly a way to delight employees and build team spirit. And everybody is becoming hugely vulnerable to hackers, who must be having a field day already. How to we prepare a resilient learning and productivity infrastructure for the future?
It is a great observation. Cyber resilience needs a leg-up. But it isn't just about technology, it is also about people and processes.
I think we'll have to see what forms of pedagogy can emerge with remote teaching. Once a good set of methods emerges, might it quickly catch on?
The sad thing is that there probably isn’t enough long term value in a building something fantastic like this for schools, especially as most schools in most first world countries are all owned by the state.
Thanks. I read it as... less efficiency = greater safety (but it’s not the same for everyone.)
Thank you for sharing your insights and research on this infection, Azeem. I have read that persons 60+ and those who are medically fragile appear to be most at risk for death. Perhaps nature is weeding us out.