I'm not trying to lecture anyone about Lockdown but unfortunately for Geraldine Fay, her lecturing life got considerably more complex as she switched from Face to Face meetings with social care students to frozen Adobe screens on social media.
I asked Geraldine to take part in the Lockdown Voices series and appreciate her openness in letting us take a look at a Lecturer on Lockdown.
Lecturer on lockdown in Cavan!
I’ll admit it. When I heard that the college where I work was closing, I had notions of catching up on marking exams and life before it reopened. Not fully appreciating the lengthy impact the virus would have, I left the office and my Granola on the shelf.
The Taoiseach asked us to ‘shut up shop’ on Thursday 12th March. Fast forward seven weeks and I think I should have taken the Granola bar with me!
In some ways, work life for me is somewhat the same. I have done lecture preparation, emails and assignment marking at home before. That is not unusual. However, there is now the added mission of ensuring the students get the full experience of learning online, which is not a straightforward task. It is also important to support students in other ways, as they navigate juggling home life with learning at the kitchen table. Overall, moving from the classroom to online teaching has brought many challenges for students, lecturers and many others. Many meetings starting with ’’hello, hello’’, ‘’your picture is gone’’, switch off your mic’’. And finishing with ‘’Bye, bye, thanks, see ya, mind yourself, stay safe’’. Had I known all of this earlier, I would have upgraded my laptop! The ensuing weeks have been filled with freezing, crashing and stop starting. And that’s just my internet.
I had been doing weekly personal training classes through the college, which I was really enjoying. They ceased for lockdown, so, along with the rest of the country, I moved to online fitness videos! However, Russian twists on the living room floor with the dog watching through the window doesn’t work for me, I need the face to face motivation.
For now, life continues in a blaze of podcasts, adobe, to zoom, to houseparty to Microsoft teams… I also hear you can do conference calls on fb messenger…
When our computers aren't crashing, I am sure some of us have reached out to Facebook friends that we haven't seen in years or friends from school. Maybe all this technology has connected us with friends and family like never before and I am delighted that Geraldine answered my call when I asked friends to pen a few words about their own Lockdown experience. Thank you, Geraldine.
DOG's LIFE: An expert in her field, Geraldine has switched campus life for the green green grass of home where rural Ireland has been brought up-to-date with online classes and teleconferencing.
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