Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 31 seconds
I don’t have a lot of time to write this post. Like many who read this blog, I’m involved in trying to prepare our campus and our faculty for COVID-19 closures and moving online. But the social distancing thing (apart from cuddling my daughter) makes the need for digital affect (emotional presence?) so much more important.
I just wanted to share the recordings of two conversations I was part of where we talked a lot about care in this difficult time.
The first was a Vconnecting missed conversation that had a different focus but inevitably turned to this topic around minute 15 I think:
The above convo happened a few hours after I had invited folks to the second. The second is one I co-organized with Mia Zamora last night, specifically to talk about Continuity with care. We planned it like 2 days before but people needed it so much, so many came! Including people we did not know were planning to join. The urgency of it meant “anyone welcome” was taken to heart. And although many had to leave because they had just discovered their campus was closing and had stuff to do (I discovered about mine 2 hours before the meeting!)… it seemed like a much needed virtual hug and sharing of both frustration/challenges but also hope and especially hope in community. We had people from truly all across the globe: Lebanon, Japan, Australia, Italy, Austria, Ghana, Mexico, and of course US, UK, Canada.
Watch it here 90 mins almost:
This has really been a time where I have admired the generosity and care we can show each other online – and I hope we can model it for our students as well, and directly show them care as we go through this global crisis.