Synchronous vs. asynchronous content delivery in context of COVID-19



Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. (Thoreau).

Many educators are considering ways to deliver their courses in this unprecedented context of students being in their homes, away from the normal routines and location of the Academy.  We no longer have control of the schedule - the students are not a captive audience in front of us at the times that we normally expect.

What does this mean for our new context of online delivery?

I have heard many educators talk about synchronous delivery - 'it will offer some structure to the student learning experience,' some say.  'By delivering our content synchronously we will provide a valuable service to students who suddenly have lost their anchor points.'

I would like to encourage my educator colleagues to re-think their options.  I think we have a lot to learn from Thoreau.

Time, and even time disruption, is something that we are all experiencing right now.  Time is the anchor for our occupations - the ways we occupy ourselves.  We often complete our occupations in discrete increments of planned and organized temporal units.  At 7:45am the students might sit in a specified lecture hall and attend a class.  It is not surprising that instructors would seek to re-anchor the learning process within some structure of temporal organization, and to even believe that students want the same.

Maybe some do want that structure, but now they are in home or other environments that are familiar but unfamiliar.  Their parents may be home trying to access a virtual private network or understand how to use networking software for their work.  Their younger nieces and nephews may be in the home, displaced out of daycare or school, crying because they no longer have their normal structure or routines.  Perhaps the family is still trying to contact their Internet provider to see if they are eligible for having data caps lifted.  Maybe there is not enough toilet paper.  Multiply this complexity by 20, 50, or 100 students.

Suddenly, expecting so many pieces to fall into place for a synchronous delivery method might seem a little complicated.

We are all so interconnected - we would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars.

Take some time to watch the stream, sliding away, so much more complex than our impulses would have us normally consider.  There may be high value in considering asynchronous delivery and allowing students to access course content on their own new schedules.  Perhaps we can help our students and their families and each other to find some new balance points.  Some new harmony.

Some new connection and interconnection to a very unusual context, for now.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deconstructing the myth of clothing sensitivity as a 'sensory processing disorder'

Please note first that there is no formally recognized clinical designation of  'sensory processing disorder.'   It is a term constructed by occupational therapists that has not been formally recognized by the larger medical community. In our clinic we receive many referrals from local pediatricians when parents have concerns about children being overly sensitive to their clothing.  Most often the children referred are from four to seven years old and the families are severely disrupted by the children's behaviors and responses to clothing issues.  Commonly, children will have severely constricted tolerance for certain outfits, want to wear the same clothes repeatedly, complain that clothing is itchy/scratch/bumpy/wiggly/ouchie, and this all leads to disruption of daily dressing routines.  There is no doubt that the behavioral concerns are very real. The pediatricians tend to be appropriately conservative and provide families with good behavioral management suggestions
Read more

On retained primitive reflexes

Each year I receive several emails from colleagues about 'retained primitive reflexes.'  I am also seeing an increased number of reports from local 'health care' providers who are documenting these alleged problems so I thought I would write a summary of my opinion on this topic.   Predatory 'health care' providers including some OTs, PTs, chiropractors, and behavioral optometrists are creating a new 'market' for treating this alleged 'problem.'  Parents should be very wary of these practitioners and other professionals should challenge these practices whenever they are seen. The following is the kind of information that causes concern and was provided to me by a colleague as a sample from a student's IEP: The student continues to demonstrate the following retained primitive reflexes that at times interfere with his ability to demonstrate appropriate adaptive responses: Fear Paralysis Reflex, Moro Reflex, Palmer Reflex, Tonic Labyri
Read more

Twenty years of SIPT - where do we go next?

Standardized tests are periodically discarded or updated because the normative group that the test was developed around may have changed characteristics. I am unaware of any 'industry standards' regarding the life expectancy of standardized tests; rather, professionals in a field tend to come to consensus about the relative usefulness of tests on their own. I would be interested in knowing what other therapists think about the Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests - which were published in 1989. I became certified in the administration of these tests seventeen years ago. At first I found them highly useful but the more I gave the tests the more I understood the limitations. Now it has gotten to a point where I do my best to discourage people when they ask for this test - not just because of the inherent weaknesses of the test construction but also because of how old the norms are. There have been some legitimate concerns with the tests including extremely poor test-retest re
Read more