Archive for April 2020

Podcasting during the pandemic

A lot of my focus is covering colleges. Before COVID-19 swept across the globe, it was easy to see college life, which happened in busy classrooms and spacious libraries and lush campus quads. Now with campuses temporarily closed due to the health emergency, the activity of professors and students has shifted online. And that makes it hard to know just what is going on right now in higher education—and in so much of American life.

How many students just can’t get to online classrooms because they lack technology or Wi-Fi access? What other economic hardships are students and professors facing due to the crisis? Are people staying healthy?

For the weekly EdSurge Podcast that I produce and co-host, we’re trying to create a space where people can share their stories, and at least hear each other during this time of social distancing.

If you’re teaching a class online for the first time, suddenly taking your courses digital or helping lead an institution through this crisis, we hope you’ll share a short one- or two-minute anecdote or observation about how that is going. What does it look and feel like to live through this time in higher education? Just open the voice memo app on a smartphone, record a short message and email it to jryoung@gmail<dot>com. Please do keep it short, and share a moment that surprised or challenged you. We’ll compile some of them for a future episode of our weekly podcast.