Natural History at a Distance

The expanding geographic distribution of COVID-19 compelled Grinnell, like many US colleges and universities, to move to a model of distance learning for the remainder of the academic year. This was the right decision to make (also: way above my pay-grade), given the potential for such social distancing to flatten the curve, of infections. While acknowledging this greater good, it's hard not to feel anxious and deflated about the change in teaching mode, which upsets faculty, students, and staff who take pride in (and are accustomed to) teaching that is very much not at a distance. How do we do this distance-learning thing? Fortunately, there are people who know how to do this thing well. We can follow their lead. We can find some approaches that work. We'll manage.

One way I'm going to try to teaching at a distance is by using this low-readership blog as a tool, sending out seeds (of knowledge) like Apocynum, or setting minds ablaze like a prairie fire. We'll see how that goes, dude.