Coronavirus Lockdown Spanish Edition - Day 21 - Spanish universities are "closed" for students until September!

At least for face-to-face classes. Online education is going strong. Or trying to. It kind of depends on the professor's IT skills and willingness to put in the extra work. 

I have friends who are university professors, and others who are students (I'm non-academic staff). From what I hear some professors are trying to adapt their materials to an online format as much as possible, and giving some "live" lectures on Google Meet or Zoom (of course my friends included because all my friends are cool like that). But some others are just uploading PowerPoint presentations or reading materials and exercises to do and the students are NOT happy about that at all! Not to mention they're worried about how they will be evaluated for this semester (oral exams? continuous evaluation? papers? test?), how they're supposed to do internships (those that had them) or labs... What they don't always realize is that this is just as stressful for the professors! And definitely a lot more work. It takes A LOT more time to prepare one's materials for remote teaching, you can't necessarily go about things the same way you would in a classroom. And yes, there are quite a few professors who are just not that technologically savvy! Our university has a service up and running to help them, but... there are limits to what people can do in a short time and in stressful circumstances. 😓

Back to the headline... most Spanish universities have started announcing today (following government recommendations) that students wouldn't be heading back to campus the rest of this academic year (some, like the Catalan ones, are still hoping they can get students back in June). The first phase of the quarantine was the universities (and profs) trying to get online classes up as quickly as possible. This next phase will involve continuing that and figuring out how to evaluate the students. All I can say is... good luck to all, students and professors!

On my end... I'm wondering how that's going to impact the rest of the university staff. I'm thinking once this lockdown is over, and they progressively start letting people back to their businesses, jobs etc. it will probably be gradually and with social distancing measures in place. Those of us who can work from home will probably be among the last to get back to the office. Among the university staff this would have been difficult for those who work face-to-face with students (profs, department secretaries, librarians etc.), but now there's no rush for them to go back either. In any case, without our 30'000 student population on campus it will be a ghost town when we finally do get back...

#stayhome #quedateencasa #yomequedoencasa #restecheztoi

And this is why I'm grateful I went to University in Europe instead of the US...

And that's just for PUBLIC Universities! How can people afford a University education with prices like those?! Shall I scare you with my tuition fees? Less than 1000€ / year! (I don't remember the exact amount) I managed to pay for my Master's Degree in Belgium (which was even less since got a "low income" -thx to my dad having retired a few years before- reduction in fees) and cover my living expenses just by working part time teaching English and doing translations. And since I registered for the PhD programme in Belgium I've only been paying administrative fees after my initial full tuition... fees which rose to 30€ this year, oh my! I get that money back just on the student discounts I get at movie theatres throughout the year...

Homework Horrors!

I remember joking around as a student (high school, university, whatever...) that "homework is bad for your health".

Well, this weekend I've just (re-)discovered the other side of the coin: homework is also bad for the teacher's health!!! I'm spending my weekend correcting exams and a serious bit of homework (counts for half the grade) I asked my students to turn in (the high school bio class I have as part of getting my teaching certificate)... and it is so annoying!!! Argh!!! Why couldn't I have remembered the lesson I already learned a couple of years ago when I was teaching English at the University of Liège? That if you give the students homework... then you have to spend hours and hours and hours correcting it afterwards! And it's not just the time you spend on each copy, it's the brain-wracking as to how many points to give each question, how much do you give them if they tried but just didn't get it, how many if they've got all the necessesary info but is also full of errors, wishing you could give extra points to the one student who did it perfectly... and so on and so forth.

Sigh! Rant over. Time to get back to correcting those papers...

Teaching in Spain...

So, among the many things I do to keep myself more than busy, for the past 4 months I've been working towards getting my teaching certificate to be a Biology and Geology teacher in Spain. Teaching is one of the many options I'm considering in the "what to do with the rest of my life" category once I finish with my damn PhD (others include continuing in research -either in an institute or a university-, environmental education, consulting, conservation work, writing... and finding SOME way to get myself back to the Antarctic ice).

Becoming a teacher (jr high and high school) in Spain is just a little bit complicated (who am I kidding, it's a lot complicated!). You have to have a university degree in your subject and then you have to get your teaching certificate via a course (taught in the universities) called the CAP (curso de aptitud pedagógica). Currently a 4-month course, as of next year it changes to a full 12-month master's (we think, they've been saying the change is coming for years now). And although I think the 12-month would be much more useful (the current one is a bit "light" on content), since I'm not sure I want to go into teaching and I'm doing this for the "just in case", I figured I'd better get it out the way now, before I end up having to dedicate another year of my life just to decide if that option is for me or not...

The CAP has a theoretical and a practical portion. The first had 10 hour classes in IT applied to the classroom (which is what got me started on this blog, had to write a post as homework!), a 10h class in education sociology and a 20h class in teenage psicology. Very interesting peeks into these fields (particularly since I knew nothing about them), but just enough to whet your curiousity and make you aware of certain sitations, problems, theories, but not enough to be really useful once you become a teacher. We were a mix of students from many different areas of study so it gave room for some interesting discussions -when people could be bothered to open their mouths-. And then after Christmas a 40h course specific to each our subjects (in my case bio+geo) during which we basically worked on the different aspects of what consitutes the school curriculum, how it's put together, the different administrative levels involved (lots of boring legislation) and how to create our own for the competitive exam (will explain later). I had been hoping it would be more specific on how to teach certain aspects of biology, more information on ressources available (he did bring a few of his books and magazines, but no online info). Interesting but not nearly useful enough.

Now I'm in the midst of the practical phase. I've been shadowing a teacher for a couple of weeks now. Am so grateful I managed to get a school a few blocks from my house (as opposed to on the other end of the city like I was originally supposed to have, ugh!) as I have to be there at 8am, and I'm no longer used to getting up so damn early!!! I've been accompanying her to most of her classes, taking notes on how she structures her classes, deals with students, exams, department meetings etc., and occasionally helping answer students' questions when she's got them doing exercises in the classroom. One more week and then I step in! Yikes! Kind of scared of that part, and feeling lazy 'cause since she wants me to go more in depth in the material on two of the book chapters I can't use it (the book) as a basis so I have to prepare all the written material for the students! Fortunately it's on the seas and oceans so could talk for hours about it off the top of my head, but still... And fortunately I only have to deal with one group, 4º de la ESO (age 15-16, the equivalent of high-school sophmores in the US and 2nd in the French system, in Spain it's the last year of obligatory schooling, the next 2 years of "bachiller" are optional). So it will be 6h (one of which will be the exam) with 20-odd rowdy teenagers, not very disciplined, and who knows if they'll pay much attention to little ol' me once I get up there in front of them... gulp! I think I'll write more about how all this prep is going another day.

Anyhow, after this is over, if I decide I want to go into teaching in the public sector (to get into the private you have to have really good contacts), I'll have to do the "oposiciones" (competitive exam) in the autonomous Community where I'd like to work (I'm currently in the Comunidad Valenciana, which includes the provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Castellón). These "oposiciones" are a nightmare from what I've heard. You can ace the exam (has a written theoretical portion on subjects you might teach in your course, and a practical where you present your study plan for a whole course to a jury of 5 teachers) and still not get a teaching position as the exam is only worth half your final grade (or maybe 60%). The rest of points you get based on your academic file (GPA), your degrees (I'll have an advantage with the PhD), languages (am good there with 2 extra), publications (done!), extra courses (organised by a syndicate or a university, at least 30h) and most of all work experience in the public school sector. Basically the first couple of times you participate in this competition there's no way you can get a permanent position, but you do get put in the "bolsa de trabajo", a list of substitute teachers if you will. People get called upon in order (of their final grade) to replace teachers that are on medical leave. A friend of mine's been doing this for almost 4 years now (she's done the exam 3 times), and when she's lucky she gets a long substitution, when she's not she's a couple of weeks here, a couple there... hell on earth! But do it long enough and you'll have enough points to get a permanent position even if you just barely pass the exam. This whole damn process is what pushes me away from the whole idea... we'll see about it. I might try out this year just to see what it's like. There's no way I'll be able to study (PhD to finish...), but it will give me an idea of how things work and I'll be able to prepare for it better if I decide to give it a serious try... ja vorém!

Geez, just writing this has reminded me how tiresome the whole process is! Ouf! Well, even if I don't go into teaching having done the course will probably prove useful on a personal level. Anything new you learn is good. ;o)

Revolución y alfabetización digital

¿Qué decir de la revolución digital? Su influencia la vemos alrededor nuestro cada día, en el hogar, el trabajo, en el colegio, en el teléfono, en el coche... A menos de haber vivido escondido en una cueva estas últimas décadas es imposible no haberse dado cuenta de cuanto el incremento y la disponibilidad de tecnología ha cambiado nuestras vidas. Y no hay vuelta atrás (a menos de considerar pronósticos del cine post-apocalíptico, y la mayoría de ellos tampoco eliminan la tecnología de nuestras vidas).

En mi familia tenemos un ordenador en casa desde... 1987 (creo). Vamos, que casi no me acuerdo de una época en la que no tuviésemos uno. Mis recuerdos de aquel Apple IIc son bastante difusos. Lo usábamos como una máquina de escribir glorificada y para jugar (Arkanoid! Labyrinth!), mientras que mis padres le sacaban más provecho con las cuentas de la casa. El paso al sistema MacIntosh ya trajo un sistema mucho más "user-friendly", pero seguíamos sin saber lo que era internet (que solo mi padre tenía en su trabajo), y los deberes se hacían a mano. El haberme ido de casa a la Universidad supuso varios años sin usar un ordenador con regularidad (a 2-3 por ordenata una vez por semana en las prácticas de estadística o modelización no cuentan) y le perdí algo de la maña que tenía. Cuando dejó de separarnos ese charco llamado el Atlántico, ya no tenía costumbre de ordenadores. Mis hermanas pequeñas lo manejaban con mucho más soltura que yo. Ya se habían introducido a historias de messenger, blogs, comunidades on-line... y yo llevo años corriendo para intentar alcanzarlas.

Así es para muchos. Los peques y jóvenes tienen una soltura con el mundo digital con la que sus padres tan solo pueden soñar (en la mayoría de los casos). No pueden siquiera imaginar una época antes de que hubiese un ordenador en cada casa, (por no hablar de los muchos que tienen más de uno, en mi caso ya cada uno tiene el suyo), y si quieren encontrar algo lo primero que hacen es buscarlo en Google. ¿Los libros? Polvorientos en las estanterías de la bibliotéca. ¿Para qué ir a perder el tiempo con la vieja Enciclopedia Britanica si Wikipedia tiene todo al alcance del teclado?

Dicen por ahí que muchas de las diferencias sociales del siglo XXI estarán centrados en el grado de acceso a la tecnología. Que hay que impulsar la alfabetización digital para evitar que se profundicen más las desigualdades dentro de la sociedad, o entre Norte y Sur.

Ya nadie puede permitirse ser un tecnófobo si quiere salir adelante. O simplemente si quiere entender a sus propios hijos!

Y aqui estoy yo. Después de haberme metido en "comunidades online" como Bebo o Facebook (en los que minimizaba mis aportaciones por falta de tiempo), ahora me meto en más líos de internet. A ver si como los otros en su momento esto también me inspira y me esplayo... y las horas pasan sin que me de cuenta. Igual pasan semanas de silencio, o igual no habrá quién me calle. Ja vorém. ;)