Social Practices COVID-19 Teaching Resources

From Beyond Social
Revision as of 19:10, 4 April 2020 by Michelleteran (talk | contribs) (→‎Rotterdam and Dutch-based Resources)

MANUAL How to use the wiki

WDKA Links

   WDKA Staff and Students Update

   WDKA COVID-19 Central Information Point (In Dutch Only)

   MYWDKA Distance Education 

   Etherpad hosted on Piet Zwart Institute Experimental Publishing server

They aren't any less private that regular etherpads on riseup or whatever, but they are hosted on an internal WdKA/PZI server. So in case you want to be strict-ish about HR regulations that we use only "official" HR software, this pad may be a workaround. Do not post private or sensitive information on these pads (student emails, phone numbers, etc...). They are not private, and also GDPR. 

   Education on a distance - Learning technologies from HR

   Research for People Who Would Rather Create

Manifestos and Charters and the like

Foundational documents, demand-lobbying, organizational guidelines 

   DCW (Design and Cultural Workers Union). Open Letter: COVID-19 Statement from Designers + Cultural Workers

   Newsletter announcement DCW

   UVW (United Voices of the World). Open Letter: UVW response and demands of bosses and government  UVW is a members-led, campaigning trade union which supports and empowers the most vulnerable groups of precarious, low-paid and predominantly migrant workers in the UK. Founded in 2014, rapidly gaining media attention and popular support with a series of high-profile victories for workers at Sotheby's, Harrods, and the London School of Economics

   Dutch ZZP-er (Freelancer) Manifesto. Cultural Workers Shouldn't Pay for the COVID-19 Pandemic in NL  This is an anonymous open letter meant to address Dutch cultural organisations, institutions of education and research, and government bodies. Its goal is to raise concerns regarding freelance and remote work during the COVID-19 emergency. Feel free to circulate, appropriate and adapt this text. 

   Cancel everything, pay everyone!This is an open letter directed to gallery owners, curators, editors and directors, It's aim is to highlight concerns of precarious freelance work and how financial security will be impacted by cancellation of cultural events. 

   #StayTheFuckHome. A Movement to Stop the COVID-19 Pandemic 

   [Do we need manifesto/charter/guidelines/whateveruwannacall?]
At least for SP? Something to see with the group that logs on next week.

So far, compiled this list of priorities from diff ppl/groups, feel free to add priorities of your department or your personal conviction-type stuff

  • XPUB

- priority on physical and mental care/health and solidarity - honouring agreements with freelancers in one way or another - adapting the curriculum/schedule to match everyone's constraints and suddenly more complicated daily activities (both of staff and students) - planning should be very flexible, things will change on a weekly/daily basis for the coming month - slowing down is a good thing

  • Others

+ do not create more dependencies on software, esp. tech with a steep learning curve and/or companies with dubious, extractive practices + in a crisis situation... ...communicate clearly and precisely and often (but not all the time) ...ego conflicts are a liability ...explore solidarity and generous collaboration ---allow people to organize independently, adapting "official" guidelines to their own needs ...archiving, interpretation of information and resources is vital +give us time to figure this out... in HK, for mass closure of schools due to protests+coronavirus, they gave 2 weeks for self-directed online learning and then 2 week recess for teachers to re-design their lesson plans... online learning environments are not built overnight... also, people may have other pressing concerns at the moment such as taking care of family members, trying to make rent without freelance work/horeca or retail jobs/etc...

*just because people are home, doesn't mean they have the same ability to concentrate From a meeting: NO BUSINESS AS USUAL. Demand recess. This is not a design-thinking, how do we solve 'wicked problems' scenario.

Include challenges in your briefs, let students contribute to solving such problems as most of them (problems) can inherently fit into a design project. Educators work for such precarious academic institutions that asking them to come up with urgent, mind-blowing, optimal and UNPAID solutions is not only unfair but highly counter-productive. We should not reproduce precarity.

Please do not tackle this as a design project. Your task here is to train students to find their own solutions. It is not a test for your own design skills. Keep the ego aside and be kind to yourselves.

Mental health and anxiety and isolation

  COVID-19 & Your Mental Health: A Comprehensive Resource Guide

This resource was pulled together by a counselling practice who specialize in tools and self-knowledge in overcoming anxiety and depression. They are based in Vancouver, BC.

Mental health is just as important as physical health when it comes to responding to COVID-19. Caring for our mental health as individuals and as a community translates into a more effective pandemic response and fewer costs to humans and society as a whole.

 
   Mental Health And COVID-19 – Information And Resources

From Mental Health America. Has extensive list of resources. US centric. But there's one Spanish language entry in the advice for parents section 

   self-care share pod for times of isolation

   RESOURCES TO STAY PHYSICALLY AND MENTAL HEALTHY DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

   I Spent a Year in Space, and I Have Tips on Isolation to Share


Education-Based Resources

Comprehensive lists, shared docs, (collectively written) resources from/for pedagogues 

 Feminist Pedagogy in a Time of Coronavirus Pandemic

FemTechNet, a network of scholars, artists, and students working on, with, and at the borders of technology, science, and feminism, has a great deal of experience thinking about pedagogy and technology. We have produced real intimacy, vibrant classes, and insurgent pedagogy since 2012. The principles of our signature Distributed Open Collaborative Courses (DOCCs) are crucial (see below). In this time of crisis, we believe we need to think again, drawing the most power possible from the radical knowledges, tactics, and commitments of feminist pedagogies of past experience. 

   Teaching Design

Google Doc

  • Ideas for online teaching and learning design
  • (⇨ online bibliography) An in-progress + collaborative project
  • design as in: graphic, industrial, product, communication, media, visual, video, fashion, textile, web, interface, UX, animation, game, typeface …

Quite useful. And joyfully colourful 

  RESOURCES FOR ONLINE INSTRUCTION of VISUAL/STUDIO ARTS

   Teaching Effectively During Times of Disruption

Stanford University guide to teaching in times of COVID-19. Looks like they are subscribed to Google online VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) by the tools that they recommend using. Interesting section on synchronous vs asynchronous teaching. Extensive Zoom tutorial. 

   Italy's Ministero dell'Istruzione (Ministry of Education) official guide to teaching at a distance. 

   ArtEZ Arnhem: Emergency Online Readiness for Students

   University of Hong Kong: Teaching and Learning Arrangement (Updated February 10)

   Jason Coe (HK academic) ZOOM Meeting 

   Distance-Learning Tips for Gallatin Arts Workshops: Getting Started

Authors: Teachers at Arts Faculty, NYU Gallatin
Source: Crowdsourced Google Doc 

   Some working questions

Engage with the circumstances of the moment. What does it mean to teach art-making in the 21st century? What are the students noticing about institutional response to crisis?

Industry response?

What can this moment teach about the world we live in and the fields we work in?

How might these online formats stimulate ways to think about environments, space, and time? For example: what might be ways to “build environments for the screen” or think about the bounded screen as a kind of theatrical space?

How might students collaborate in this new space? For example: working in pairs or groups to create projects that are shared and built upon remotely? 

   Amazing Educational Resources

Education Companies Offering Free Subscriptions due to School Closings (Updated) 

   Resources for Online Meetings, Classes, and Eventshttps

by Facilitators for Pandemic Response group and other collaborators 

   ACCESSIBLE TEACHING IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

   Design Education Resources and Considerations for dealing with COVID-19 (AIGA)

   Digital Cultures Resource Person Community List

This is a list of resource persons in digital cultures who want to help peers deal with this transition. 

   Carnegie Mellon Assignment/Team Prompts

Community-Based Resources

Comprehensive lists, shared docs, (collectively written) resources from/for community organizers 

 Feminist Resources on the Pandemic

The response to Coronavirus is a feminist issue.
The response to the current pandemic is in dire need of feminist perspectives, especially as we are already seeing the gendered impact it is having. We hope you find this page to be a useful resource in staying informed and making sure that during this time, we both protect the most vulnerable and ensure that governments’ responses to this pandemic don’t trigger a roll back on women’s and human rights. We will be continually updating this space with new resources. If you think we’ve missed something, drop us a line! 

 Surviving the Virus: An Anarchist Guide

   Covid at Home   Self-help site on COVID-19, based on reputable sources including the World Health Organization, Center of Disease Control (USA), Robert-Koch-Institut (Germany) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (EU), initiated and co-maintained by (legendary Dutch hacker and XS4ALL founder) Rop Gonggrijp. Informs on basic facts on COVID-19, how to stay healthy, what to do when symptoms emerge and at various levels of disease, shopping list, how to get involved and help the project 

   Queer Relief Covid-19 Berlin - Offering Help  This is the form for offering support to people who are immunocompromised, chronically ill, asthmatic or elderly. We also give relief to people in quarantine that need help. This is a queer community effort. Priority will be given to people on the LGBTQIA+. spectrum and other marginalized folx (i.e. BiPoC).

   COVID-19 Freelance Artist Resources This list is specifically designed to serve freelance artists, and those interested in supporting the independent artist community. What this list IS: an aggregated list of FREE resources, opportunities, and financial relief options available to artists of all disciplines. What this list IS NOT: a place to promote individual artist practices (we love you, but we’re not equipped for that); a place to promote fee for service work; or a place to seek direct emergency funding. 

   Mutual Aid for Survival Useful stuff from here: +++++ Article on pod-mapping strategy for mutual aid Pod Mapping is a tool for mutual aid developed by the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective. The mapping tool focuses on the notion of the 'pod' as a microcosm of community. (See section: Lectures, Workshops, Lessons, Activities, Ideas)
   +++++ Essay on Half Assed Disabled Prepper Tips for Preparing for a Coronavirus Quarantine

   (LIST) Collective Care Is Our Best Weapon against COVID-19Authors: Text written by Cindy Milstein, resources compiled by Agency & CM. Link to Google Doc, which will be updated as we get information, is here. To add to this list, email anarchistagency@gmail.com. Overwhelmingly, in this extensive list of what communities all over are putting together, in terms of resource lists and guides, Google Docs and Facebook are used. All resources from US. 

   COVID-19 Mutual Aid Resource Links (slight Los Angeles focus) This is quite an extensive document that does devote a large section to Los Angeles-focused mutual aid resources. Many of the links found within this document are already listed in throughout this (study) pad. Much of the information and practices outlined in this document are from lessons gained from disability and transformative justice activists. There are several practices / exercises listed below in the "Lectures, Workshops, Lessons" section. 

   BERLIN LOW-INCOME ARTIST+FREELANCER RELIEF FUND Hi. We're a group of low-income/precariously employed artists+freelancers from the Berlin arts scene raising money to support other artists and freelancers like us who are taking financial hits as a result of closures and lost income from Covid-19. Our intention is to collectively raise funds to provide emergency and preventative resources to those at financial risk as the government is doing little to protect our well-being.Comparable campaigns: NYC Low-Income Artist+Freelancer Relief Fund and PRECARIOUS WORKERS & ARTISTS HARDSHIP FUND in the UK
   Neighbors helping Neighbors: Request for Aid - Philly Mutual Aid for Folks affected by COVID-19This is a form and service developed by volunteers in Philadelphia. It is for people in need of food or other supplies, or for picking up prescriptions or transporation assistance. The service prioritizes those who are the most vulnerable. There is a form that needs to be filled out to request services. The important disclaimer: We are simply neighbors helping neighbors. The aid provided comes from community support and solidarity thus we cannot guarantee to meet each request but we will be trying our best to do so . We are not funded, we are not a government or medical agency, we are simply neighbors connecting neighbors to neighbors who can help (and we happen to be organizers


   Decolonizing Community Care In Response To Covid-19 Author: Jade Begay Now more than ever it is imperative for us to decolonize from individualism and reconnect with ways of community care.


   Autonomous Groups Are Mobilizing Mutual Aid Initiatives To Combat The Coronavirus

   Mutual Links from The World Transformed (TWT)

   SH*T! 7 things to do instead of hoarding toilet paper  Beautiful Trouble’s irreverent guide to activism in the time of pandemic. Author: Rae Abileah and Nadine Bloch 

   Coronavirus Tech Handbook

   Leveler, peer to peer wealth distribution

The leveler is a tool for salaried workers to distribute wealth evenly across a database of freelancers, service industry and gig economy folks who are impacted by COVID-19 health and safety restrictions. You can joing the database if you are impacted by the situation, or you can donate/distribute if you are a salaried worker.

Concrete ideas for classroom activities

 The Pandemic Experience Archive

We are currently experiencing an unprecedented historical moment. Each week, for the rest of the semester, you will create a document that chronicles your experience as events unfold over the next 7 weeks. Your document might take the form of:

  • Journal entries
  • Series of photos
  • Instagram/Facebook/social media posts
  • Voice/video recordings
  • Recorded Zoom/Skype sessions
  • Emails/letters/text message exchanges
  • Drawings/creative works
  • Poems

Choose a form above and stick with it! You can always add additional types of documents to your archive. This project is an opportunity to reflect on and respond to your experience of this unprecedented event as it unfolds in real time. You can use this as a way to reflect, to play, to ponder, to theorize, to look closely, or to connect with others. 

   Write an email to somebody who inspires you

A student I barely know took a few minutes to send me a beautiful email today. Let’s all do this while in lockdown, if we can. Let’s write one email a day to someone whose work has inspired you, someone you care about, someone who has made your life more meaningful. All in for fierce and kind pedagogies 


   Spread-Sheet-Introduction*

(*inspired by the “Building Alternatives” spread sheet of Evening Class London) Found on teaching-net shared doc (See Education-Based Resources)

  • Set up a Google Sheet
  • In the first column write your name and style it
  • Chose an emoji as your course-signature paste it in the second column
  • In the third column write: What are you personally interested in or concerned about?
  • Find common themes and comment on your colleagues interest in the fourth column in your font-style

Sample picture here 

   POD MAPPING

Pod-mapping strategy for mutual aid Author: Rebel Sidney Black
facebook.com/rebelblack007
Source: Mutual Aid for Survival (See Community-Based Resources)
Pod Mapping is a tool for mutual aid developed by the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective. The mapping tool focuses on the notion of the 'pod' as a microcosm of community. Using 'pod' as a microcosm of community makes it more concrete, easier to get organized, connect, make and follow through with a plan. Pod Mapping therefore relies on concrete names of people that can be called upon in times of need. The pod map starts with placing yourself in a circle; next step is to fill in dark circles around your circle names of people who you can count on for different services and aid. Some examples might be somebody who can take you to the doctor, provide childcare, purchase and deliver groceries, etc. The next layer, dotted circles, are people who might become part of the map. The most external layer are larger community groups, networks and resources. The map therefore moves from the most direct and concrete to less-defined, yet important, forms of support. The resulting map of mutual aid visualizes who you can call upon in times of need, and vice versa.

Neighborhood Pods How-To As things get harder, we show up for our neighbors. As a pod point person, you take on the responsibility of reaching out to your neighbors, checking in on what needs are arising on your block, coordinating a neighborhood group chat or phone tree, and staying in touch with the point people from other neighborhoods for resource pooling.

How to build your pod

  • Fill out the survey to volunteer as a pod point person (PPP)
  • Starting your pod
    Print (or write out!) copies of the following contact sheet and deliver to your neighbors. Ideally you’ll deliver 30+ fliers to the houses/apartments right around where you live. Ring the doorbell, knock, talk through the flyer with them, and if they aren’t home, leave a flyer. (Be safe about this!! Might be better to just leave the flyer on their porch)
    It is illegal to put things in other people’s mailboxes: try the crack of their door, between screen door and main door, etc.
    Safety advice: leave off your house number
    The flyers are to exchange contact info, in order to start a text thread (or whatsapp, signal, slack, facebook messenger, whatever!) or a phone tree.
    FLYER ASAP IN CASE RESTRICTIONS ON LEAVING HOME ARE PUT IN PLACE
  • Naming your pod
    Pick a fun name! My dad’s pod in California is “the Peralta Street Blockheads”
  • Building your pod
    Create a group chat (ex: Whatspp, Groupme, Slack) for your neighborhood and as people text you, add them to the group
    Troubleshoot as needed - help folks download any necessary apps and get set up if they need it, answer questions, ask neighbors to help bring more people in.
    Neighborhood Pods should have between 5 and 30 people. If there are more than 30 neighbors interested, figure out how to split up into two pods.
    Use the conversation guide below to get to know the people in your pod, and to get a sense of what support needs may come up in your pod.
  • Stay in touch with your pod members.
    Share wider-community resources, and keep up with how folks are doing. If your pod members are into individual check-ins, do those as often as feels right. (Right now, your pod might do check-ins every few days. If the pandemic escalates, your pod may choose to check in every day.) If you are PPP of a larger pod, consider establishing a phone tree for individual calls or texts.

found in COVID-19 Mutual Aid Resource Links)

  • Building care teams

There is an example of how to create a local community response team in an apartment building.

  • Set up a mutual aid fund

A crowdfunded solidarity funding pool that can be distributed out to those experiencing financial difficulties.

  • Actions you can take right now: Do a self-inventory. What do you have? How will you support yourself? What can you share?
    Your inventory can include your skills: making creative recipes with canned food, talking to friends who are in panic, making plans, making spreadsheets, getting organized.
    Maybe you have class privilege. Consider giving money directly to others. This can be sick and disabled folks who can’t work, artists who are having gigs canceled, students who don’t have access to other resources, funding an herbalist to make plant medicine & immunity boosters for others.
    Offer housing for students whose campuses are getting shut down.
  • Offer assistance to others.
    Check in with sick and disabled friends, especially those who already have to self-isolate in non-pandemic times. Resource hoarding has also impacted people who need wipes, masks, and hand sanitizers for daily survival. Share.
    Drop off groceries for elders and immunocompromised .
    Cook extra meals and share them with neighbors, housed and unhoused.

News Articles Blog Posts on Assorted Tactics

   The Move to Online College is Hitting Adjunct Professors the Hardest

Authors: Lauren Kaori Gurley and Aaron Gordon Source: Vice 

   Everyone Gets Free Rides

Anarchist infoshop runner and tricycle driver explains his mutual aid and community care initiatives., including free rides for healthcare workers and frontliners. 


   Teaching Art Online under COVID-19



   Accessible teaching in the Time of COVID-19

Author: Aimi Hamraie Source: Mapping Access "Disabled people have long used remote access as a method for organizing pleasure and kinship." "All of the below suggestions come from disability culture and community. Disabled people have been using online spaces to teach, organize, and disseminate knowledge since the internet was invented. Disabled people are leading survival praxis in apocalyptic times. Please recognize that the very types of remote access that universities now mandate for classrooms and conferences have been denied to disabled people. Please also recognize that disabled people have long engaged in refining methods for remote access to protests, classrooms, doctor’s offices, public meetings, and other events. Mention this in your classes so that students know they are benefitting from crip technology and praxis. Commit to accessible teaching because it is crip technoscience and disabled ingenuity that has made remote participation possible." 

   Transcript: Yan Lianke, What Happens After Coronavirus?

Elaine W Ho writes: Also this most beautiful and moving e-lecture from a professor at HKUST, to be moved to tears via wi-fi... On February 21, Yan Lianke, IAS Sin Wai Kin professor of Chinese Culture and chair professor at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, gave an e-lecture to his class of graduate students on coronavirus, community memory, and how storytellers will one day address the outbreak. Below is a translation of that lecture, published first in ThinkChina and translated by Grace Chong. 

   Mutual Aid for the End of the World

Author: Kelly Rose Pflug-Back
Source: Briarpatch Magazine

GOAT is rooted in principles of mutual aid and collaboration, with a focus on marginalized identities – centring the people who mainstream disaster narratives often paint out of the picture, portray as a threat, or assume would succumb to the Darwinian logic of “survival of the fittest.”

“I identify as ‘multiply marginalized,’ which is a simple way to say a very complicated thing,” Aus explains to me. “I’m PoC [a person of colour], I’m mixed-Black, I’m from a low-income family. I have mobility issues and chronic pain, as well as obsessive-compulsive and anxiety disorders.” By virtue of these things, they explain, even the decision to leave the house involves risks ranging from physically inaccessible infrastructure to harassment from police.

GOAT discussions can range from how to make homemade insulin if pharmacies shut down, to how to evacuate from Toronto if roads are closed, to how to navigate interpersonal conflicts when the survival of a group is at stake. Aus explains, “The first thing I say [when I teach] is that literally no one is able to survive day to day without relying on someone else – why do we assume we can do this when everything is falling apart?” 

   Studio culture goes online at Taubman College

Author: Antonio Pacheco
Source: Archinet

"Remote and alternative design studio setups have been an ongoing interest for Taubman Assistant Professor of Architecture Cyrus Peñarroyo, who is teaching a thesis section this semester that falls at the intersection of architecture and media culture. In the studio, Peñarroyo and his students are exploring a variety of approaches for handling design critiques and reviews remotely, including distance learning and shared work sessions. Utilizing the power of conferencing platforms like BlueJeans and Google Drive, Peñarroyo and his students are exploring ways of decoupling design feedback from the physical confines of the studio space. [...] Working with two students at time, Peñarroyo was able to offer feedback on design work through a mix of digital platforms. Peñarroyo explains, 'I can see their faces on BlueJeans, and they can share their screens with me via their computers. So the person presenting shares an in-process Rhino model, for example, or they share PDFs or slideshows they have produced.' [...] For the course, students are leaving comments on one another's work via a shared Google Drive, while plans for conferencing in outside critics for the final reviews are in the works. The approach is actually preferable for some students, Peñarroyo explains, as it can take some of the stress of the review performance itself off of these budding designers. Alternative critique and review approaches create 'multiple spaces for interaction' Peñarroyo adds, 'It provides a different level of engagement and can feel more direct and less performative. It also means that students have flexibility and more than one space to engage in design with.' ” 

   CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS FOR HAVING TO ABRUPTLY TEACH ONLINE

Author: Jaap Grolleman Source: Personal Blog 

   How to turn an offline course into an online one

Quick suggestions, self-explanatory, by a sociology teacher 

   Please do a bad job of putting your courses online

Author: Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Source: Personal Blog

An article that takes in account mental wellbeing and care of both teaching staff and students. i.e. this is a special situation and to please be aware of the extra demands. In other words, don't be a heroine. This text has been recommended in several forums and chats, multiple times in some cases. Seems to resonate. 

  Remote Teaching Resources for Business Continuity

 Workers' rights in the Netherlands in the COVID-19 crisis

   How to hide your messy room for a Zoom video conference

Author: Barbara Krasnoff
Source: The Verge 

   corona virus syllabus

A crowdsourced cross-disciplinary resource. Containing articles, books, syllabi, podcasts, visual arts, music and literature references.

Safe practices

   DIY Masks making tactics

>Tactic 1

>Tactic 2

> Tactic 3

> Tactic 3

>Tactic 4

>Tactic 5

>Tactic 6 

   Wash your hands
   How soap kills the coronavirus/

   Disinfecting groceries and take out food
   PSA Safe Grocery Shopping in COVID-19 Pandemic Safe grocery shopping and takeaway from a physician trained in sterile techniques used in surgery. Coronavirus can live on plastic and metal surfaces for 3 days and cardboard for 1 hour, and aerosolized (in the air) for 3 hours.


 Addressing COVID-19 Face Mask Shortage

Information from Stanford Medicine Anesthesia Informatics and Media Lab.

  • What appropriate replacement materials are suitable for facemasks when no PPE is available?
  • Links to consider if you have to make a mask
  • Can Facial Masks be Disinfected for Re-use?


Software Review

Try to include only software that is free or has a basic free version that is functional and doesn't expire in 30 days. Better if its FLOSS. 


General info on FLOSS alternatives

online tools for the pandemic

Alternative Office Suites

FLOSS

  • OnlyOffice like Google Docs, best used with free NextCloud accounts.
  • Cryptpad Sequel to Etherpad & alternative to Google Docs.

Collective text editing

FLOSS

PADs to easily make and start working


SOURCECODE to make your own instance on your server


Note: pads are automatically destroyed after 60 days of inactivity. You can choose lifespan of pad, up to one year. 

Online Classrooms

Proprietary

For tasks like sending course announcements, sharing course materials, collecting assignments, and grading and feedback of students.


FLOSS

An open source alternative to Slack 

   XPUB is thinking of the ff combo for their online classroom set-up

Except for the pads, you might need some skillz to set this up. If you are interested in learning more, I dunno, maybe ask Interaction Station or XPUB people?

  • Mumble voice server (low latency audio only chatrooms, usually used in online video games).
  • Pads (etherpad, cryptopad)


Online conferences

FLOSS

  • Jitsi No need to make account, you can have unique/personalized URLs for a fixed classroom address

+ alternatives based on Jitsi (some of them come from the 'Digital Solidarity Networks' pad ):


Proprietary

  • Whereby (fka appear.in)
  • Zoom
  • Bluejeans
  • Google Hangouts Meet
  • BlueButton -> open source.
  • RIOT.IM -> Built on Matrix protocol, new standard for decentralised communication.
  • Discord -> Voice and text chat, also used for group work

Chat messaging

Proprietary 

Screen recording

Proprietary

  • Panopto -> recording, live streaming, sharing and managing videos
  • Loom -> capturing with or without a camera
  • Quicktime Player


FLOSS

For converting and compressing video/audio files 

Drawing/mapping

FLOSS


Proprietary 

Process diary/web design

FLOSS 


File sharing

FLOSS


Proprietary 

Audio transcription software

Proprietary 

Audio streaming

FLOSS


Proprietary 

Video streaming

Proprietary

Increase your video length limit. By default, you can upload videos that are up to 15 minutes long. Verified accounts can upload videos longer than 15 minutes.

To verify your Google Account:

1. On a computer, go to https://www.youtube.com/verify.

2. Follow the steps to verify your Google Account. You can choose to get a verification code through a text message on a mobile device or an automated voice call.

3. Make sure you're using an up-to-date version of your browser to upload files greater than 20GB.

Maximum upload size

The maximum file size you can upload is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less. We've changed the limits on uploads in the past, so you may see older videos that are longer than 12 hours. 

Game/interaction design tools

FLOSS List of resources


Social Media

Useful groups

Thread:
Question: I'm interested in how anyone is handling social practice or socially engaged curriculums online. I am teaching an Art and Activism course and my students have just had a few community meetings and started designing a community mural at a homeless shelter near campus. Since we more than likely can't continue how do I keep them engaged with the original intention? I'm considering an at-home creative placemaking project...

Answer: Asset mapping research about the community is a good remote project

Answer: There might be some projects in the Living as Form archive that model how social practice can happen in disembodied or virtual contexts: http://creativetime.org/.../2011/livingasform/about.htm

Answer: I'm not sure how much longer you'll be working with these students, but I would recommend discussions with them about what they've done so far, and what would make that project more socially engaged and have more impact outside of the shelter context. Have them do proposals for public art projects - perhaps online ones now - that would offer the sheltered population more strategies for not "othering" the shelterless. Have them come up with proposals for other urgent issues - strategies for reimagining the panic of this time, how to make the movement to provide mutual aid more visible to those in the mainstream, how to cope with the huge shift in society that is happening and turn it into something that is life-enhancing rather than growing fear. I've been teaching socially engaged art and social practice for about 40 years, so I'm glad to hear that you're facilitating work of this kind.

Answer: There have been hackathons to help do medical work to fight COVID. 3d printing PPE or doing research. Home/houseless are especially vulnerable would be good to help find protocols and other ways to help. Food and blood banks are low too. So many opportunities to do good!
Answer: Many of us are currently engaged in a very large socially engaged project related to flattening the curve- what can your students learn in this moment related to physical distance and finding ways to move thru solitude? What are ways to stay connected? Student could do writings, skypes, drawings, meditation. What does it mean when we as a ”body” slow down in a conscious effort to care for each other.

Answer: Perhaps something concerning the 2020 census or inventory of objects in your immediate environment?

Answer: I highly recommend leading breathing meditations with students via ZOOM. We did a check-in yesterday in both classes (Body Image and Art and Art in a Time of War). While the levels of anxiety varied, all the students were dealing with something (the fragility of their economic situations, fears about not graduating, family and other health stresses). I gave them two 4-minute drawing prompts: draw the feeling of uncertainty that you're experiencing , draw a positive resolution of that uncertainty. Their images were moving and healing for them to do.

Thread:
Question: Curious to learn how you're approaching your Community and Social Practice classes in the age of social distancing...

Answer: Great question. Maybe start with something actionable and basic. I was wondering if we could do something as basic as organizing people to help make masks, I see a lot hospitals and health workers asking for this. Can we organize our two classes to collaborate on this? We have 4 sewing machines in art education area. Maybe a plan to see who can send fabric and thread and who has a sewing machine etc. Who can contact local hospitals and clinics to see if they want and need masks and how many? Etc. I can be available to help. I am planning to send out a message to art ed students. Masks can also have power messages on them.

Answer: The next assignment for my class is to have them write a physical love letter that they can post from their windows, or post on the street. A love letter to whom ever, or whatever they want. It feels to me that we need to be reminded of love we can share and the support we can give at this time.

Answer: There are several threads here that have addressed this topic. Several of us are asking students to create work for windows, doors, front stoops and porches, balconies, etc. with themes of interconnection, love as contagion, loneliness, how to overcome panic, how to sit with uncertainty, how to prevent the rise in authoritarianism, racism, xenophobia, how to be antidotes to fear. They can work with found objects, things in the recycle bin, etc. I'm having the students create masks to prevent face recognition in surveillance systems and masks to radiate love to others. They will also make altars to heal the trauma of this time and put them in their front yards or in their hallways. In my cultural identity class they will make work about their cultural heritage and what their ancestors are teaching them right now about resilience, adaptability and courage. They will also make work to overcome fear of difference and reimagine future generations without white supremacy, patriarchy, and the violence born of oppressive systems. Check in's each time we meet online.

Answer: Not sure what you are after, but there's always important discussions to hold, discussions around: intentions of SEA, effects of SEA, ethics, different working methodologies. This past week, as a SEArtist I've been thinking a lot about the meaning of "social solidarity". All of a sudden everyone is talking about it, which is beautiful, but up to a few days ago no one really bothered about this (at least that's my perspective of society around me) - don't get me wrong, I'm not undermining anyone/anything. As a SEArtist I feel that social solidarity can be practised in such an easy manner, in 'normal' life situations - it just takes some sensitivity. So the days we're currently living have made me feel the urgency to define the term "social solidarity".

 

Twitter Hashtags

  • #onlineteaching

Online Archives and Libraries

Virtual museum/gallery tours


Online libraries


Other resources


Inspirational Films, Art, Performance and Literature

Films and performances shot from one's home/ bedroom / hotel room

  • THIS IS NOT A FILM, Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, 2011
  • Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock, 1954
  • Hush! Viktor Kossakovsky, 2002
  • UNREST, Jennifer Brea 2017 (now streaming on Netflix!)
  • Je, tu, il, elle, Chantal Akerman, 1974
  • La chamber, Chantal Akerman, 1972
  • Portrait d'une Paresseuse, Chantal Akerman, 1986
  • Searching, Aneesh Chaganty, 2018
  • Noah, Walter Woodman, 2013
  • Hotel Diaries, John Smith, 2001-2007
  • Semiotics of the Kitchen, Martha Rosler, 1975[1]
  • Hotel Diaries, John Smith, 2001-2007 [2]
  • Fenstergucker, Abfall etc - People Looking Out Of the Window, Trash etc., Kurt Kren, 1962 [3]
  • Practically all films by Amsterdam-based Super 8 filmmaker Jaap Pieters, nicknamed "The eye of Amsterdam"[4]
  • Gob Squad – Room Service (Help Me Make It Through The Night) [5]
 film collections


Other works


 literature


 open calls

A Zine of art made during the current COVID-19 lockdown, published online, every month, until "the end" of this current emergency.
Whilst Gaada has suspended all face-to-face workshops, this zine serves as a project to maintain contact with our core group of users, but we also wanted to extend the opportunity to anyone currently in self-isolation.

Whilst the services everywhere feel the strain, this zine will be published digitally, with a printed version published in the future to celebrate 'the end' of this current period.

Submissions
Anyone currently in self-isolation are welcome to submit some art + this can include drawings, text, photographs etc … made during your period of isolation.
We hope contributing helps keep your spirits up!


Rotterdam and Dutch-based Resources

 General Help Resources

Meldpunt schade coronacrisis

  • ("notification point for damages caused by the corona crisis"), for cultural workers/producers in the Netherlands:


Meldpunt Kunstenbond

  • database where art/design/culture freelancers can enter cancelled commissions

(Kunstenbond/Arts Federation is a lobby organization for fair payment and fair practices in the Dutch cultural sector: "Whether you are a dancer, designer, sculptor, app builder, lighting technician, production manager, art teacher, musician, photographer, animator or any other support function for creators. The Kunstenbond is there for all creatives and supporters of creatives in the Netherlands who share a passion for making. The passion is fine, but what about the dough? An honest income for all creators, that sounds logical but is unfortunately not the reality. That has to change.") https://kunstenbond.nl
Cultuur en Corona

  • similar survey created by Boekmanstichting (Dutch cultural policy non-profit organization):


Gevolgen coronavirus amateurkunst

  • Consequences of the coronavirus for amateur arts - online survey by Stichting Amateurkunst (Dutch non-profit organization for amateur arts):


Letter of the Dutch minister of culture, education and science

  • on the consequences of the corona crisis for the sector:


Dutch left-wing oppositional parties (Social Democrats, Greens, Socialists) demand emergency funds for artists

Financial help for freelancers in the corona crisis

  • By the municipality of Rotterdam. Includes PDF form for requesting financial help:

 Financial Aid / Worker’s rights

Regional Office of Self-employment

  • (RBZ)'s scheme for offering living allowance (social assistance):

Very helpful scheme for the self-employed facing financial hardship.
This might apply to you.
(There is an application process involved.)

Dutch government's new economic measures for the current times of crisis

  • You might very well be eligible. Look closely if you are facing hardship. Useful. It includes extra support for entrepreneurs, deferral of taxes and reduction of fines, etc:

Worker's rights in the Netherlands during Corona

  • Put out by Vloerwerk. Contains what rights you have as a worker. Covers permanent, part-time and zero percentage contracts. Also freelancers. Provides some English translation of the documents. Provides links to services (available in multiple languages).

Financial help for freelancers in the corona crisis

  • municipality of Rotterdam

includes PDF form for requesting financial help.

Guide & Resources for international students, artists & art workers in the Netherlands

  • prepared by Student Council Rietveld & Sandberg

With helpful information on the status of self-employed workers, zero-hour contracts and governmental financial aids available for freelancers, in English.

Can residence permit holders apply for the coronavirus support (“Tozo”) for ZZPers?

  • Attention all NL-based artists/freelancers who are non-EU residents. Here is a comprehensive & clear text (from my immigration lawyer) about your rights to corona-related governmental assistance.
    'The only safe answer, for the time being, is that it could be considered to be a violation of the requirement of Dutch immigration law that you are obliged at all times, as a non-EU citizen immigrant with a conditional right of stay in the Netherlands, to have sufficient, independently earned financial means to support yourself and your family without making use of public assistance'

Read more here and note that Jeremy has said he plans to be a definitive source of information on this, and will update the URL as new information comes up.

Coronavirus updates (Covid-19)

  • Special coverage of the legal impact of coronavirus in the Netherlands

Get insights and guidance about the latest legal news regarding the coronavirus and what it means for your rights under Dutch law.
GMW will continue to update this page with the latest developments as they occur. Please note that laws change, especially in such a challenging situation. Legal advice provided here is correct at the time of writing.

 

 Food

Voedselbanks / Foodbanks

  • Affordable food

Community-run foodback where they redistribute perfectly-fine products that corporate supermarkets are obliged to throw away. Foodbanks are open to everybody, and are much much cheaper. They give out free bread if you buy anything from them. You need to have cash.

They have three locations in Rotterdam (Noord, Oost, Zuid). The Noord one is just behind the central station: Jacob Loisstraat 24-30 3033 RE Rotterdam Open: Ma-Za 10:00 – 22:00 & Zo 14:00-20:00

Rotterdam food co-op BioBulkBende

  • The only (currently) volunteer-run food co-op in Rotterdam who order food once a month in bulk as a vereniging.
    Usually have an open day every first Monday of the month, but not anymore until further notice.
    Is currently located on Almondestraat 157.

 Housing

Woonbond

  • ("Housing Federation"), Dutch lobby and support non-profit for people who live in rented apartments.

Rent waivers granted to the big national museums (but not to...)

Puntentelling woningen

  • Online tool for calculating how much rent you should be paying in The Netherlands.

Bondprecaire Woonvormen

  • Housing advocacy group.

Cultural Workers Unite * Mapping Precarity of Cultural workers in Rotterdam 

 Buurtwerk ("Neighborhood Works")

* Overview of social work/aid teams in Rotterdam's districts 

 Delfshaven helpt

* Neighborhood help in Rotterdam's Delfshaven district for people affected by the crisis 

 Donate your babyphone to Rotterdam's St. Franciscus hospital

* so that its staff can communicate with quarantined patients: 

 Voedselbanks / Foodbanks: Affordable food

Community-run foodback where they redistribute perfectly-fine products that corporate supermarkets are obliged to throw away. Foodbanks are open to everybody, and are much much cheaper. They give out free bread if you buy anything from them. You need to have cash.

They have three locations in Rotterdam (Noord, Oost, Zuid). The Noord one is just behind the central station:
Jacob Loisstraat 24-30
3033 RE Rotterdam
Open: Ma-Za 10:00 – 22:00 & Zo 14:00-20:00

   Charlois Help Elkaar

A group for people in Charlois to help each other! Do you need someone to go shopping for you, pick up a parcel, walk your dog, or chat with you on the phone while under quarantine? Post it in the group and maybe someone can help. They communicate through fb and use sign up sheet 


 Rotterdam food co-op BioBulkBende

The only (currently) volunteer-run food co-op in Rotterdam who order food once a month in bulk as a vereniging. Usually have an open day every first Monday of the month, but not anymore until further notice. Is currently located on Almondestraat 157. 

 Regional Office of Self-employment (RBZ)'s scheme for offering living allowance (social assistance)

Very helpful scheme for the self-employed facing financial hardship. This might apply to you. (There is an application process involved.) 

 Dutch government's new economic measures for the current times of crisis

You might very well be eligible. Look closely if you are facing hardship. Useful. It includes extra support for entrepreneurs, deferral of taxes and reduction of fines, etc. 

 [https://vloerwerk.org/2020/03/workers-rights-in-the-netherlands-during-corona/

Put out by Vloerwerk. Contains what rights you have as a worker. Covers permanent, part-time and zero percentage contracts. Also freelancers. Provides some English translation of the documents. Provides links to services (available in multiple languages). 

 Surveys and data bases where artists, designers and cultural procedures can report their economic losses:

notification point for damages caused by the corona crisis"), for cultural workers/producers in the Netherlands:

database where art/design/culture freelancers can report cancelled commissions

similar survey created by Boekmanstichting (a non-profit organization for the arts in the Netherlands

Consequences of the coronavirus for amateur arts - online survey by Stichting Amateurkunst 

 Debates

Cultuur en solidariteit in tijden van Corona (Culture and Solidarity in the Times of Corona)
Het Nieuwe Instituut
with Jelena Barišić, Hasna El Maroudi, Sheree Lenting, Tarona Leonora en Derek Otte.

Social Impact

 Sopa de Wuhan

Pensamiento contemporáneo en tiempos de pandemia 

 No return to normal: for a post-pandemic liberation

Today, new forms of solidarity, mutual aid, and common struggle are emerging in the pandemic. How will they shape tomorrow’s struggles for a post-capitalist world?
Author: Max Haiven 

 The Jobs at Risk Index (JARI)

The COVID-19 virus is spreading across the UK population through close human contact (e.g. via breath and touching shared surfaces). Those workers with jobs that bring them into close contact with others and/or those who regularly come into contact with diseases or infections are most at risk. 

 THE LOSERS CONSPIRACY

I GOT SICK IN PARIS on Wednesday, March 11, before the French government ordered the confinement of the population, and when I got up on March 19, a bit more than a week later, the world had changed.
Author: Paul Preciado 

 The pandemic as political trial: the case for a global commons

The pandemic has demonstrated the bankruptcy of national sovereignty — the major threats to humanity are global in character, so mutual aid, cooperation and solidarity must be too. 

 15 Demands in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Our experience as housing activists points out that: RAISING RENTS, CEASING UTILITIES due to default, NEGLECTING PEOPLE FROM MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES PLACED IN DEPRIVED AREAS, LEAVING PERSONS AND FAMILIES ON THEIR OWN WITH HIGH HOUSING-RELATED DEBTS OR PRIVATE RENTS THAT THEY CANNOT PAY IN THE EVENT OF LOSING THEIR JOBS, will increase people’s vulnerability to the virus, putting the whole society at risk
 How to Beat Coronavirus Capitalism

  • An online teach-in with Naomi Klein, Astra Taylor, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, with a musical performance by Lia Rose.
 MADONNA VS BRITNEY

Britney Spears calls for a general strike, Western armchair socialists go wild. No actual on-the-ground communists I know of have commented on this affair. It's a fun read though.

Madonna realizes that although she's famous, she's not immune to disease and famous people can die of COVID 19 too. She then takes a bath with rose petals.Video 

 Asian American Feminist Bodies: Care in the Time of the Coronavirus

It is a zine. It is great. 

 In Light of the Global Pandemic, Focus Attention on the People

  • Authors: International Assembly of the Peoples and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.
 "Herd Immunity" is Epidemiological Neoliberalism

  • Author: Isabel Frey
 Interview with leading Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans from Erasmus University

* one of the six EU coronavirus crisis advisors, on urgent and common questions around COVID19. Also explains the Dutch approach to dealing with the virus much better than the Dutch government did:

  • unofficial WdKA translation from Dutch. Also available as a PDF: [6]
 Helen Lewis, The Coronavirus Is a Disaster for Feminism

  • Pandemics affect men and women differently.
 Capitalism Has its Limits

  • Judith Butler discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, and its escalating political and social effects in America.
 Giorgio Agamben - Clarifications

  • "The problem is not to give opinions on the gravity of the disease, but to ask about the ethical and political consequences of the epidemic. The first thing that the wave of panic that has paralyzed the country obviously shows is that our society no longer believes in anything but bare life."
 Mike Davis on Coronavirus politics (podcast)

 Mike Davis, Who Gets Forgotten in a Pandemic

 KPFK Public Radio podcasts on Coronavirus

  • with Mike Davis, Robert Brenner, Alan Minsky, Linda Farthing, Ansar Fayyazzuddin
 We're not going back to normal

* Social distancing is here to stay for much more than a few weeks. It will upend our way of life, in some ways forever.

* Author: Gideon Lichfield, editor-in-chief MIT Technology Review 

 Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team, Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID19 mortality and healthcare demand

* Paper written by epidemiologists in collaboration with WHO; predicts that lockdown and social distancing will continue "potentially 18 months or more":

"[...] suppression will minimally require a combination of social distancing of the entire population, home isolation of cases and household quarantine of their family members. This may need to be supplemented by school and university closures, though it should be recognised that such closures may have negative impacts on health systems due to increased absenteeism. The major challenge of suppression is that this type of intensive intervention package – or something equivalently effective at reducing transmission – will need to be maintained until a vaccine becomes available (potentially 18 months or more) – given that we predict that transmission will quickly rebound if interventions are relaxed. We show that intermittent social distancing – triggered by trends in disease surveillance – may allow interventions to be relaxed temporarily in relative short time windows, but measures will need to be reintroduced if or when case numbers rebound." 

 Jonas Staal, Coronavirus Propagations

 Yuval Noah Harari: The world after coronavirus

  • "Many short-term emergency measures will become a fixture of life.
    That is the nature of emergencies. They fast-forward historical processes. [...]

Under-the-skin surveillance [...]
- The emergency pudding [...]
- The soap police [...]
The images accompanying this article are taken from webcams overlooking the deserted streets of Italy, found and manipulated by Graziano Panfili, a photographer living under lockdown" 

 Ian Alan Paul, The Corona Reboot

 Abdullah Shihipar, Coronavirus and the Isolation Paradox

 Ian Buruma, The Virus of Fear
 
 Bruno Latour, La crise sanitaire incite à se préparer à la mutation climatique

 Alain Badiou, On the epidemic situation

  • "we know that the world market, combined with the existence of vast under-medicalised zones and the lack of global discipline when it comes to the necessary vaccinations, inevitably produces serious and devastating epidemics [...] We will also need to pass through a stringent critique of every perspective according to which phenomena like epidemics can work by themselves in the direction of something that is politically innovative"
 Raoul Vaneigem, Coronavirus

  • (Vaneigem was a key member of the Situationist International in the 1960s)

"Our present isn’t the confinement that survival imposes on us; it is the opening to all possibilities. It is due to panic that the oligarchic State is forced to adopt measures that even yesterday it decreed were impossible. It is to the call of life and the earth to be restored that we want to respond. Quarantine is good for reflection. Confinement doesn’t abolish the presence of the street; it reinvents it." 

 In This Time of Panic, We Look to Generation X for Inspiration

Keep calm and put on some flannel. Chelsea Steiner, March 15 2020 

 Bellen met het museum

 Reading list on political, social, and ecological questions regarding COVID-19 and it's effects

 The Politics of COVID-19 - reading list by The Syllabus

 The Cloud Sailor Diary: Shanghai Life in the Time of Coronavirus

* blog by Tsukino T. Usagi 

 Stay Home Diary by Bitter Melon Poetry

* "We invite Asian writers, artists & zinemakers around the world to submit short diary entries to STAY HOME DIARY, an online collective archive being updated every day:" 

  Social Justice in a time of Social Distancing

Authors: Kenneth Bailey and Lori Lobenstine

Racism towards Asians during Coronavirus

 Coronavirus: What's spreading faster than COVID-19

 Spit on, yelled at, attacked: Chinese Americans fear for their safety

 Coronavirus, racism and solidarity, before and after Italy's lockdown – video 

 Sinophobia Tracker during CoronaVirus/ Sinophobia Tracker during CoronaVirus  This site is an effort to archive and document the information on Sinophobia, its spill-over effects, and on people's efforts to counter such trends worldwide during the CoronaVirus (2019-nCoV or COVID-19) outbreak for future alarms against racism and xenophobia. 本网站致力于记录和存档在冠状病毒（2019-nCoV或COVID-19）爆发期间有关排华/恐华情绪以及外溢影响的信息，也包括人们如何应对的努力。  

 Mai Ling's collection of news articles on racism towards East Asians during Coronavirus  A Viennese association as well as an artist collective, contextualizing and fostering contemporary Asian art and culture with a focus on FLINT (Female, lesbian, intersexual, transgender)</small

Carework Curves

Because having guide"lines" (linearity) is not flexible enough for this moment 

 Synchronous and Asynchronous Meetings

  • It seems important, from what I’ve been hearing across the board, for students (and teachers) to feel moments of group connection in synchronous calls. You could think of starting your sessions with a group check-in of some sort and then structure the rest of their guidance as you see fit, according to the hours you have left.

  • Whenever possible, see that activities can be followed asynchronously, without students having to be present all at the same time (this works for P1 or P2, for example, maybe not so much for graduation supervision).

  • Synchronous meetings tend to be good for taking stock, in a group chat, of everyone’s needs and for providing the relief many (not all) of us get from connection. Also, for one-on-one or cell-type tutorial sessions. We cannot, in these times, make synchronous meetings mandatory. Be available for these kind of meetings, but do not force students to go.

  • Cell-type tutorials (where you are seeing a small group of students at a time) might also be a useful way to budget your time. When I’ve tried this format, students seem to appreciate the connectedness. It also gives you, as tutor, some leeway: your tutorial day becomes shorter, and in the call itself, if you encourage students to do peer-to-peer review, you don’t have to be talking/guiding all the time.

  • As we have already seen in the SP Study Group call, asking participants in synchronous activities to keep a joint pad of notes on each other’s conversations is also a nice way to engage with possibilities of seeing each other online. Again, this cannot be made mandatory, but if we lead by example, then they might be encouraged to follow suit.

 Personal and Collective Needs

  • Be sensitive and flexible to student needs. Schoolwork may not be their first priority. They may be ill or taking care/worry about loved ones who are ill. Isolation may be aggravating or causing mental health issues. “Home” is not synonymous to a safe and welcoming environment. They may not have the best resources (hardware, software, internet connection, physical space) at hand to do their work. Now more than ever, there are extenuating circumstances that may make concentration and precise scheduling difficult.

  • Care is vital. Now is the time to perform emotional labor to the best of our abilities. Reassurance, empathy, encouragement, patience. Interfacing with a real human who seems to care. We are receiving so many impersonal communications, all of them serious and full of instructions to be followed to the letter. It’s overwhelming, even frightening. We talked about courage in the face of vulnerability in P1 actually. Now is time, I guess, to embody what we teach. Or try to, at least, however imperfectly.

  • Be attentive to each other's needs as well. Check in with your teacher team colleagues, if you can make the space for it. We are all feeling a great many things in unison, sometimes even in common. Now more than ever, we are connected. Ask your colleagues what they need, express your own needs as well. If needs are not explicit, it is difficult for them to be met.

  • We are finite creatures, with limits to what we can handle (in isolation). It’s ok to slow down, if we need it. Those who are able must, in this moment of extenuating circumstances, step up for those who are not able. And understand that when we cannot be there, someone else must bear a heavier weight. Solutions should be found together, in reciprocity, to collectivize and "deprivatize" (as Sami likes to say) the load.

Gossip Diary

A daily backdrop, parenthetical information 

 March 14, 2020

  • International students living in the NL booking emergency, same-day flights to head home before borders close in their countries/cities. Know of students in Rotterdam who booked flights today, from Canada, US, Mexico, UAE, Peru. They are going home to be with their families, take care of parents/grandparents who would have been alone during lockdown.
  • Biggest question now for these students is how are the teachers going to deal with different time zones, if they are to follow classes from their home countries. Other worries: If they resume classes and there are no flights to return... or if quarantines persist in their home countries after March 31.
  • Utrecht University cancels everything until April 20! Most schools and cultural institutions in NL only closed until March 31.
  • Taken from their website on 13-03-2020: Face-to-face education/exams (on campus) cancelled until Monday April 20th and University Libraries closed
 March 15, 2020

  • Students from Dutch school that are doing exchanges or internships internationally are being asked to come home. They are being told that there is the possibility of all countries closing their borders. Schools are sending official communications, even offering to help students book their tickets immediately.
  • It rained eggplants in Iran. Seriously.
  • All coffeeshops (places to buy weed, not coffee) are closed in the NL until April 6. Hope everyone is stocked up.
 March 16, 2020

  • Coffeeshops are open again.
  • Minister of Employement of NL tells ZZP-ers that they have "chosen" their situations and fired themselves, so these are the consequences (paraphrasing here)
  • People are saying borders will be closed in NL tonight
  • The whole island of Luzon is on lockdown. It is the largest island of the Philippine Archipelago with a population of 48 million people, slightly more populous than the entire country of Spain (46 million people). The capital city, Metro Manila, is on this island. 
 March 17, 2020

  • Snippets from today's phone calls/video conferences...

  • Peak of coronavirus will reach after 50 days confinement, this situation might last up to 3 months
  • IN HK and AUS: 2 week recess is pretty standard. in some schools they are testing things out in 2 weeks and then 2 week recess to recalibrate. You can do independent meetings with your students but this doesn't represent your department
  • Teachers more excited about the possibilities of this crisis than students
  • lots of superstar teachers wanting to do zoom conferences, they're aight, but it's a little bit youtube master class, people not really thinking about students and what they need

CUHK went online 6 weeks ago because they have been doing e-learning training for years and years, so they were prepared... sympathetic towards messy situations on the way, political situation for last few years has built muscle memory for unstable situations

  • Trying to do one-to-one temporal migration of classes to online world (3 hour live lecture = 3 hour zoom lecture).... this doesn't work, shorten your temporal frameworks

Panopto for video recording [lower file size than using desktop software such as quicktime, photobooth] you can download your own videos, zoom also... what about file size? is it manageable

  • Zoom only host or co-host can record video, you can record onto the cloud or onto your computer, file is mp4, co-host is useful for large settings, if you have TAs
  • give little assignments to do during a class, less possibility for spontaneity in large classes online, use breakout rooms function (only with host privileges)... you can schedule group work breakout rooms, assign specific times for it
  • "Payment problems due to coronavirus? The Tax and Customs Administration takes measures to help entrepreneurs (including self-employed persons)" See on https://www.belastingdienst.nl/ coronavirus tab
  • BTW hope you did some clapping at 8PM today?!! Clapping? Missed the memo, what for? :) forgot the memo as I was busy with clapping (for all the health care workers) Exciting Clapping kaomoji---->>>(* ﾟ∀ﾟ)ﾉｼ
  • At UCLA, some colleagues are making their seminars public now that they've turned to online teaching
  • People in the gig economy are going to be hard hit
  • We have a new fb challenge with some friends: calling our kids co-workers in an anecdote of the day
  • Activist organizers from UK focused on mutual aid for high-risk communities (from a zoom conference organized by TWT The World Transformed https://www.facebook.com/TWTNow):

- Trying not to replicate work that already exists. We have 2 teams: coordination + dispatch (distribution) of goods and services.
- How to organize facebook groups where multiple requests for assistance are getting lost due to high page activity, they have an offline spreadsheet type thing
- Transcript from TWT discussion:[7]

  • You can still go out for runs in Italy. Apparently, this is not possible in France. So people in Italy are discovering their hidden marathon runner.
 March 18, 2020

  • This is SERIOUS: ALL of my and other people’s post’s regarding relief and help and info regarding the global crisis has been DELETD by FB.... including emotional updates, creative memes and personal insights, and newspaper articles!!! Please do not stop disseminating information via other platforms. Stay strong and safe and in COMMUNICATION!!
  • Teacher outside of the NL: Just wanted to post on here to say: I’m going to be giving my students an additional week of spring break in order for them to get settled at home, focus on the mental, emotional and spiritual health, because I do NOT know what their home situation will be like. You have students who come from marginalized communities, that are differently abled and/or are STILL in the process of packing up their lives. I cannot know for sure, but I imagine that they are experiencing a tremendous amount of fear, stress and overall trauma.
  • Friend: We are using microsoft teams at the rietveld, it's patchy, keeps collapsing, due to overload

 March 19, 2020

  • one hospital in Poland got wrong protective gears for their medics, the overalls turned out to be those that are used by the construction workers
  • Teacher in Toronto: Quick note to those moving classes online & what I learned today. Rocky initial start with first 1 hour class, then Q& A was fine. Straightforward.2 hour class following, after the questions, people just wanted to stay and chat. People wanted connection, as most were locked down, not going out, going stir crazy, close quarters with family or roomies. People wanted to chat online & jump in occasionally on mic or video and just have some normal. I ended up telling stories. Funny stories (the cat attack between dinner & desert & ensuing hospital mayhem). The story of my gran I posted the other day. Had us discussing family stories. A funny story from my daughter currently now on a Pacific island for the duration. That led to talk of so many loved ones and friends caught overseas. Students told stories, really funny life-in-2020 stories. We shared live vid of our pets. Posted links to uplifting content we were seeing online. Talked about the final digital project - Family resilience stories from our elders, the value of art, music, escapism, and fantasy in a time of lockdown, games based on lockdowns...My take-away - I'm switching to full chat / hang-out for all of our remaining windows. Let's be together for the 1 to 2 hours - talk, about course stuff, life stuff, laugh and weigh in. Be human. Be present. If digitally.
  • Message from Teams: We're sorry—we've run into an issue. Try again. If that doesn't work, try signing out and back in.----->>>hahahahaha. i h8 microsoft sry personal struggs
  • Spoke with SPIN (environmental action group) students, they mentioned that contact with teachers was vital for them to stay positive, and get energy to continue some sort of activity during this period, we have semi-cancelled a workshop with them in april but it's not really cancelled, it's just shifted into a different format wherein we will work with them to think of how an environmental group can continue functioning in the new coronaworld order
 March 20, 2020

  • Friend from Berlin: After Merkel's speech pushing for social distancing, everything has closed down. There is a marked increase in police presence on Sonnenallee. The food stores are enforcing social distancing. In the supermarket closest to him, there are security guards doing crowd control. They divide separate people into a red and yellow line, controlling how many people get into the store. There is a long line. As in passport control, you have to stand behind a yellow line at the cashier until it is your turn to pay. You don't give the cashier money, but put it in a box. The cashier recieves the box, then gives change. The whole environment is incredibly tense. He feels bad about the cashiers. He knows every one of them and has known them for years.
  • No local COVID-19 cases reported in China for two straight days, three months after virus spread began
  • In iran people celebrating new year in quarantine. Happy new year. (it is also the first day of spring).
  • Today I got extremely tired, demotivated, sad, anxious, stressed. The only thing keeping me going were thank yous. Thank you for the thank yous.
  • #MochaUsonIsOverParty is #1 hashtag on PH Twitter and #2 in the world... down with fascist fake news peddling trolls
 March 21, 2020

  • Last night the recommendations for quarantine from the WHO.
  1. Eat healthy
  2. Limit alcohol intake
  3. Try to get plenty of rest
  4. Do not smoke
  5. Do not sit for long periods of time in one place. Try to get up every 30 minutes and walk around for at least 9 minutes.
  6. Adults get at least 30 minutes of exercise each day. Children 60 minutes. Try to dance, or do one of the online yoga courses. Anything to keep moving.
  7. Try not to constantly monitor the news feeds. Check-in with a reputable source, twice daily.
  • Heard people were out en masse in the parks, since today sunny day.
  • They closed the trailer campsite in Hoek van Holland, beach closed at 17h
 March 22, 2020

  • Overheard: The term “mutual aid” basically just means when people band together to meet immediate survival needs, usually because of a shared understanding that the systems in place aren’t coming to meet them, or certainly not fast enough, if at all, and that we can do it together right now.
  • Volg instructies Rijksoverheidop: houd 1,5 meter afstand! Bent ui ziek of verkouden? Blifj thuis. Bescherm uzelf un de mensen omu heen. Samen tegen Corona. Keep your distance to others. 
 March 23, 2020

  • All events/gatherings are prohibited till June 1st. Those who won't follow these rules will be fined. This could be with a maximum of €400 per person.
  • If one of the family members has a fever, the whole family must stay in.
  • Go alone to the supermarket for groceries
  • Hairdressers and nail salons will be closed
  • If you have visitors at home, the maximum should be 3 persons. Keep 1,5 meters distance.
  • Children are allowed to play outside.
  • Prime minister of NL had to make announcement about the crowded beaches and parks last weekend. Am not sure if he said people were being Undutch or Asocial (or does he say Anti-Social). Funny how the thinks the national identity is a paragon of care and consideration.

 March 27, 2020

  • Needed to take a break from this pad, for a few days, as screen life increases. Starting to dissociate a bit from my own experience, due to seeing myself on screens all day. As if things are not happening to me but to someone else. I hesistate to say this is happening because this is a traumatic experience as I live in relative comfort, in comparison to other parts of the world and other situations. It is a stress response indicative of a self-defense mechanism that comes from trauma, perhaps better said. Though it's impossible not to think of this whole situation as a traumatic incident in the history of human sociality. If there is a history of human sociality, as opposed to just history of humans.
  • At some point this week, all social gatherings were postponed until June 1st. And all national examinations at high school level this year were canceled.
 March 28, 2020

  • NSync and Backstreet Boys manager Lou Pearlman flew blimps (rented them out for people to fly them at concert) and Ponzi scheme maker. And took all of NSync and Backstreets Boys' fortune. He died in 2016 in federal custody.
  • Just found out that FKA Twigs and Robert Pattinson broke up.
  • It's the weekend, catching up on celebrity news because need a break.
  • Comrade Britney Spears called for a general strike on social media.
  • Madonna made a video from her bathtub surrounded by rose petals, calling COVID 19 the great equalizer because it doesn't care how famous you are.