"Failure is always an option; surrender is not."
That has been my motto for the past few weeks. For you see, while many schools are diving into remote learning today (and I think we're all just waiting for the inevitable call of School Closed for Rest of the Year) mine has been doing so for the past few weeks.
And, after I expressed great interest and showed how it would work, I've been doing remote D&D as well.
But what has this experience been like?
Well, let's start from a historical perspective: there really is none. For the vast majority of human history, you learned how to work by working (with some informal instruction), and you lived within your societal norms.
Period.
Then tutors appeared, and the rare school set up for the good of the slightly less rich (and sometimes the not-actually rich), until the modern world with its public schools. We tried the online thing--it worked...ish...just not that well. We also tried putting lessons on YouTube (learn history until your Up Next shows you clips of Ancient Aliens on the History Channel). But, for the most part, things chugged along as they always had.
Until now (dun-dun-DUH)!
There's a difference between doing something by choice and doing something by necessity; and we're in remote learning by necessity. Depending on the school, expectations, and subject matter it can look very different. For some teachers, it's creating a video for students to watch--kind of like a flipped classroom, but without the classroom. For others, it's holding office hours where the kids can drop in and out at will. Still for others, it's trying to hold class as normal, where students need to be in a certain chat for a specific amount of time.
I'd argue that the best approaches tend to be a mix of the three.
See, I'm looking at remote learning as an opportunity: how can I try out new things. I've failed many times so far--heck, just yesterday I tried to change around a point-value system we'd been using and it didn't quite work as intended. That's OK--the kids gave me honest feedback (since they know I'll listen), and I'll be tinkering with it until it works how I want it to.
This week I tried out doing an email and a This Week in D&D news-style video. That worked great, and I'm going to do it again. Due to the cooperative nature of the class, I also have a set time for us: we come together at a set time, then disperse into groups, and then come back at the end. But I'm always open for email questions, or meeting to get a character made (which I do try to do during D&D if possible).
That all being said, it still means that the kids are on screens a lot. For some, it's no big deal--it's how they live their life, and it's how I live mine. For others, they're just not used to it, and the great flickering light is hard on them. That's why I'm trying to come up with ways to change that--activities that we can do that'll have them moving, or using the screen in an entirely new way. What if we all cooked together, or did little science experiments? What if we did some acting games? We don't have to stick with what we've been doing--this is a time of freedom to see what we can do.
So, what's the whole point of this mess of an article? Once again: failure is always an option, but surrender never is. We have a chance to try new things, knowing full well that some of them will blow up in our faces. So long as we learn from them, we can grow. But the one thing we can never do in the Quarantine is give up! There will be a world after this, and if we keep thriving now then it will be all the better for it.
This has been another Adventure in the Austentatious. If you liked it, tell your friends; if you hated it, tell your enemies; and if you don't care either way then tell everyone. Stay safe, be amazing...
And happy quarantine.
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