There is no good solution for K-12. I see what is going on in my school. So much back and forth between administration and the union. Half the in person day will be spent taking temperatures (at least twice daily for the whole school…which lets out at 12,) plus outdoor mask breaks and frequent hand washing. Half the school Zooms in from home, and the afternoons are remote. I question how much learning will take place…especially since teachers will have a hard time talking for any length of time in a mask and no microphone…from a distance.
I don’t “lecture” but I do a short video each week just to get us started and introduce basic ideas and assignments. I will do a Zoom once a week too, not because I want to, but because my school has been adamant that this is what most students want. I’d be perfectly happy to run my classes async, but most students if they are remote, want live remote. At least that’s what’s mandated to me.
We’re heading up to Colgate tomorrow to move in our freshman DS. Out of 2218 at-home tests given to students, just 8 were positive, while out of 866 faculty and staff who were tested, only 4 (all asymptomatic apparently) were positive.
As has been posted on this thread, Colgate is implementing a detailed plan. Upon arrival we’ll need to drop off our son and his belongings at a tent area, and no family members are allowed in any buildings. All students, no matter where they reside, must quarantine until September 8th. Since over 90% of Colgate students live on campus, and Madison County has had so few COVID cases, there’s a chance this could work.
Good luck to your S @scoop85.
Does Colgate have doubles or just singles?
UConn is doing the basics: 2 week quarantine in the dorms for all students living on campus before classes starts, testing all students upon arrival, with off-campus students also having to show a negative test to come on campus, plus random tests on a percentage of the student population weekly.
More interestingly, IMO, is they are also testing the wastewater. From an article about the advantage of wastewater testing:
“ What we know now is that it looks like wastewater actually gives you about seven days’ notice – the level of COVID in wastewater goes up seven days before a significant increase in cases gets reported.”
That’s because shortly after an individual contracts the coronavirus, they begin to shed large amounts of the virus through their feces, typically before they show any symptom of illness. Their fecal matter then enters the wastewater system, traveling through a network of sewers and waystations until ultimately, and in the case of a campus like UConn in particular, it ends up at a centralized wastewater treatment facility.
If the source of the COVID in wastewater can be pinpointed where it enters the system, Maas said, this seven-day wastewater warning sign could prove critical in limiting the potential scope of an outbreak on campus.”
https://today.uconn.edu/2020/08/storrs-campus-reopens-uconn-scientist-will-watching-wastewater/
So another experimental technique to watch and learn from …
Thank you. Colgate does have doubles, and my son will be in one. His roommate is from Connecticut, which like New York has had low virus numbers for awhile, and with both of them having tested negative this past week, I’m hopeful. All students will be tested again upon arrival and then within 2 weeks and periodically during the semester.
In good news, the school my kids attended had k-4 back in person last week, and it was very successful. Such happy kids, calm teachers-even music and gym class occured, masked up. A relatively small private school with lots of room, small classes and plenty of resources, so it may not be applicable elsewhere, but it was so nice to see the joyful children again. Some happy stories in this grim time.
I am following Cornell more than other schools because it is both of kids’ alma mater. They are testing everyone upon arrival, whether they live on or off campus. It is a pre-requisite to register for classes, and it is required for remote students who live within Ithaca. They will test undergrads twice a week, graduate students and staff once a week.
ND was one college very on said it was going to bring students back, so it surprised me they were so unprepared for testing or a plan to keep students safe (from quarantine to parties).
As far as online learning, it can be done well if planned ahead. Just look at some online homeschool websites. It requires online sharing tools - whiteboard, and professors having materials to share online.
Prior to Covid, my firm did not allow work from home. It was a complete switch when we were told on a Sun that we would all be working from home for indefinite period. We launched Teams right away. I had 3 major systems going into production, so we all had to learn to work remotely effectively. I found the most effective/efficient meetings are the ones when we have an agenda, prep materials to be shared (could be system design to contract). I made sure materials were shared ahead of time so we could review them during the meeting.
We have learned to share information online seamlessly. It took few weeks for everyone to get a hang of it. Last week all three of my systems went into production. 
If the schools didn’t use this summer to train their instructors on how to teach online then shame on them, that’s what I would have expected them to do.
I have watched and worked with more workshops, demonstrations, tutorials, that I can count, through my school and other outlets, and read, asked questions, practiced, made design decisions, etc. all summer, and I am sure that is the norm (especially considering that not only have I seen hundreds of my fellow instructors from my institution doing this all summer, but belong to several extremely active FB groups with many thousands of members, all sharing experiences and advice.) I can’t speak for all, but there has been a whole lot of learning expected and happening.
It will be interesting to see what happens with apartment pre-leases this year. I can’t imagine a lot of students or parents excited about signing a big lease for next year while their classes are online.
If classes are online Fall 2021/2022 then we all (parents, colleges, citizens) have a lot more to worry about than signing leases.
That is interesting about UCONN testing waste water. But how rapid is that? I would say otherwise UCONNS testing protocol is insufficient. Trinity in Hartford committed resources to testing with the Broad Institute. 14 day pre arrival Quarantine and neg pretest within 72 hours to enter campus to begin fall semester. Staggered arrivals by regions affected. Testing within 24 hours of arrival, then all will submit to twice weekly thereafter for the length of semester. Other modifications dorm de densification and social distancing. Code of conduct contract. Online for a week, then hybrid. They partner with Hartford Hospital for health care. But who knows its on the students at all of these institutions.
The University of Michigan has it’s dashboard up.
Nice that you can breakout Students vs Staff. Looks like weekly updates at this point, I hope that increases as students arrive.
I can see a scenario where, if the only colleges in the country able to provide some ratio of a 100% residential experience are “relatively small, private, with lots of room and plenty of resources”, some families may find the $50k price tag worth it. But, we have about 79 days in front of us before that becomes a credible scenario.
Update on NC universities- UNC has 2 more clusters, NC State had almost 100 new cases on Friday- mostly Greek housing, they have gone online for classes. ECU has identified Covid clusters in at least 5 dorms and 1 sorority house. Neither ECU or NC State tested their kids upon arrival. That was a big mistake. NC has been hovering at 7% positivity since May.
As an aside, a fire department has reported a covid cluster of 17 positive out of 41 firemen.
I think the high density housing is a problem. All the dorms that have clusters at ECU have hall baths (a lot of dorms have hall baths at ECU). Greek housing shares bathrooms and common spaces. It doesn’t just take a party, it just takes one person.
Isn’t that true even with in-person meetings?
Seems like while some aspects of work meetings or classes in K-12 school and college do have to change when going remote, some of the methods that make them more effective (e.g. prep materials or reading assignments available beforehand) are the same for both in-person and remote meetings or classes.
Towson U “temporarily “ moving to all online learning - positivity rate there is at 8.8%.
I just don’t understand all these places moving instruction online for “one week” or “two weeks.” As if things are going to magically improve in that period of time. All this means in practicality is that those weeks of instruction are going to be lost. Just go all online now for the rest of the semester, get everyone on board, and get on with the instructional mission. You can’t jerk students and faculty around like this.
Thinking about Spring semester, and how schools that haven’t come back this Fall must be scurrying to ensure they can successfully open in Jan.
How is Broad Institute doing with its 24 hour turnaround guaranty, anyone know?
How expensive is wastewater testing? Why wouldn’t you do that in addition to whatever frequent swab/spit tests you were going to use? If not for the expense, it seems like a no-brainer because it is non-invasive and more importantly it seems to be an early warning system. What am I missing?
@SenioritisCT @waverlywizzard Hope College is doing wastewater testing. They have the residence halls divided up into zones. Here’s a YouTube video about it: https://youtu.be/R0B_NKH7Bds. The wastewater testing is in addition to pre-arrival testing, post-arrival surveillance testing, and testing of symptomatic students. They just had the first week of classes. They have a sort of rudimentary dashboard up but so far it just shows the results of the pre-arrival testing.