Complex Coronavirus Challenges and Cheerfulness

Normally I post regularly on this site about the work I am doing, posting all my materials and presentations in case they are useful to others.

Well, like everyone else, I’m not going anywhere for the moment, and probably not for a good while as a stay-at-home 70 year old!

But I am keeping busy with, mentoring, remote support for Galway University (getting better at Zoom!), writing references (as always) and writing still, notably with Kay Sambell (see last two posts on alternatives to unseen time-constrained invigilated exams, and watch this space for our next grand oeuvre), plus chapters here and there on topics as diverse as leaving leadership and PhDs by non traditional routes.

And I do still Tweet, but I’m mainly trying to keep things light (baking, garden, etc) because people don’t need more grief at this time!

But isn’t it interesting how the  current situation is causing us to rethink what we plan to do next?

Phil is currently musing (at https://phil-race.co.uk/2020/04/musing-backwards-and-forward/ on developments in online and distance learning over the decades and I am thinking through my own future.

Do I want to go on trains and planes most weeks? (pretty certainly not). And anyway, will cash-strapped HEIs buy in externals in the future? (debatable). Do I want to review for journals? (leave that for the younger academics for whom there is some career benefit. Writing more books? (ditto). Offering webinars and online seminars? (tempting, but our broadband relies on copper wire at the end of the street with most of our neighbours working online in the day time, so synchronous is out, but it may be better since the tree surgeon has cut off the branches that were rubbing on our cables!).

So quo vadis? Who knows, but at least I’ve got plenty of  time to think it all through. And I’m doing so with a happy heart and good companionship.