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RE: physics in the times of plague



Dear Friends,
Assuming that everybody stays in shelter (this is inevitable given the 
scale of CV-19 disaster) and schools remain closed (I am sure this will be 
for the rest of the school year), we should reach some equilibrium within 
a week or so. For me, it was a rough transition to teaching online but now 
it's under control. I suggest that once one or two teachers feel that they 
are ready for this virtual Theorynet experiment, they will let us all know 
and we will set up a session  with Jesse T who is the most experienced to 
start. Per may also try it directly with Scott. The main challenge is to 
announce it to students, encourage them to join and make it easily 
accessible on the best platform.  If it works out, I can follow up, as 
well as Per, Ken and Jim, who all look ready, and maybe we can set up some 
regular schedule. I think there is no need to stick to pairings -- just 
get started wherever/whenever we can and we'll see how it goes and figure 
out what's the best way.
I hope it sound like a good plan.
Best regards, stay safe.
Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: Jesse Thaler <jthaler jthaler net> 
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2020 11:51 AM
To: Krista Siren <ksiren gdrsd org>
Cc: Berglund, Per <Per Berglund unh edu>; Taylor, Tomasz <t taylor 
northeastern edu>; physicstheorynet cosmos phy tufts edu
Subject: Re: physics in the times of plague

Hi All,

Regarding the format, I think the faculty host can decide.  I would plan 
to do half lecture, half questions.

Regarding the platform, I think we can get any of them to work.  
(Anecdotally, my son had an "all school share" on Google Hangouts which 
turned into absolute mayhem since the host somehow didn't have permissions 
to mute the students.  And at MIT, we experienced a rare Zoom bug, now 
fixed, where one meeting link sent people randomly to two different rooms. 
 Overall, I've been happy with Zoom, but all of these platforms have a 
learning curve.)

Regarding Per's question about small groups, Zoom has "breakout rooms" 
which is good for making small groups.  But the options for doing shared 
calculations are limited.   The collaborative whiteboard on Zoom is slow 
and frustrating.  It is possible to have multiple students share their 
screen, which seems to be the best option.  It is also possible to grant 
mouse control to someone remotely, but I haven't figured out how to make 
that work in a learning context.

Regarding Krista's point about responsiveness, we are experimenting with 
Slack as a way to engage students.  Thus far, though, students who don't 
respond to emails also don't seem to respond to Slack.

Cheers,
Jesse





> On Mar 20, 2020, at 11:35 AM, Krista Siren <ksiren gdrsd org> wrote:
> 
> Faculty in my high school are using Zoom, as is my daughter's elementary 
> school, & I've used hangouts before.  So far my own students haven't 
> been that responsive to the things I've been sending out this week, but 
> that may change with adequate lead time, and more experience doing this 
> from home.  
> 
> Oh - also, for what it's worth, this is the person you used to know as 
> Chris/Christopher Siren.  I'm a trans woman and came out at school 
> last December, so I'm now Krista Siren.  (I don't want to hijack the 
> thread on that, just clarify who this is.  I don't expect any response 
> to this point, but if there is, make it a direct reply and not a 
> reply-all.)
> 
> Krista Siren
> 
> On Fri, Mar 20, 2020 at 11:16 AM Berglund, Per <Per Berglund unh edu> 
> wrote:
> Hi Mike,
> 
>   Thanks for your email, and for info on what you find is working as far 
> as communicating with students, ie Google Hangouts. I’m planning to use 
> Zoom and my iPad as my “white board”—the iPad is connecting as a 
> participant w/o audio/video, but sharing the screen, while I use my 
> computer or phone for audio/video. 
>   Do you have any experience, yet, with what is a good way for the 
> students to work in small groups on projects, where they can share 
> calculations etc? Anyone else who has any experience with this, please 
> feel free to chime in, as we all are moving to on-line/remote learning.
> 
> Cheers,
> Per
> 
> PS Scott, let me know and we’ll arrange a virtual visit to Coe-Brown 
> once things settle down.
> 
>> On Mar 20, 2020, at 11:04 AM, Michael Hirsh (NHS) <michael_hirsh 
>> needham k12 ma us> wrote:
>> 
>> Caution - External Email
>> HI
>> 
>> Great to hear from you actually.  Theorynet went dark and I have not 
>> heard any follow up since our September meeting.  I think if this wears 
>> on into May, it would be a nice opportunity to do something different.  
>> Zoom works, but I have been using (and intend to use) Google Hangouts.  
>> It is nice - all I have to do is send a link and it appear that an 
>> unlimited number of participants can just click the link.  There are no 
>> apps to download.  Participant see a video image of whoever is talking 
>> or the host can switch the screen to show all of part of what is on the 
>> desktop.
>> 
>> Next week I will just be re-establishing contact with students (for 
>> some reason I was told to wait until 3/23).  But sometime after that a 
>> video lecture or question session might be a nice distraction  for 
>> students.
>> 
>> Mike
>> 
>> On Fri, Mar 20, 2020 at 9:42 AM Taylor, Tomasz <t taylor northeastern 
>> edu> wrote:
>> Thank Ken for your input. The ball is on teachers side as usual. I am 
>> worried that nobody responded to my message, but I guess everybody is 
>> very busy reorganizing their lives. I will repeat it next week.
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> 
>> Tom
>> 
>> From: Ken Olum <kdo cosmos phy tufts edu>
>> Sent: Friday, March 20, 2020 9:09:11 AM
>> To: Taylor, Tomasz <t taylor northeastern edu>
>> Cc: physicstheorynet cosmos phy tufts edu 
>> <physicstheorynet cosmos phy tufts edu>
>> Subject: Re: physics in the times of plague
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Hi, Tom and all.  I know nothing about the technical aspects of 
>> online classes (and since I'm not teaching I have not had to learn).  
>> But in terms of organization I wonder if it would be best to keep the 
>> physicist/teacher pairings that we have and work within whatever 
>> system is being used by the schools.  I've seen everything from a 
>> regular school day with classes taught by Zoom to very little 
>> activity.  Maybe physicists could fit ourselves into whatever online 
>> system is being used by each school.
>> 
>> Thoughts?
>> 
>>                                         Ken
>> 
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> 
> --
> Krista Siren, M.S. Physics, M.A.T, Secondary Education B.S. Earth, 
> Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Physics Teacher, 18.5 year veteran 
> teacher; (she/her/hers)
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