Good evening everyone. I thought we would make it one more week before this happened, but as I am sure you all know by now, CUNY has made the decision to convert all classes to online classes. Please read to the end of this email as there is some information I need from you in order to make this happen.
To recap where we stand. All classes are suspended until March 19th. This means that the work that was originally due on March 17th will now be due on March 24th. If you are originally scheduled to facilitate the discussion on the 17th, you will now prepare your presentation for the 24th (feel free to email me and we can work out what this can look like). The university itself is NOT closed—offices, libraries, etc. remain open.
I will be updating the schedule to reflect the changes, so it is important to stay on top of the website in order to keep track of new due dates for classwork. I will let you know when the site it updated.
For now we will keep the format of posting reflections, but we will change the format a bit. You can write a shorter post, but you are now required to comment on at least one other person’s reflection. This is now our main way of having a conversation.
We will also maintain weekly contact via a video chat that will take place during our regularly scheduled class time. This will mostly likely not be for entire 2.5 hours, but rather an 1-1.5 block of time between 1:10 and 3:40. I will create a poll shortly so that we can see what time period works best for everyone.
The video chat is not optional—it is how your attendance will be recorded. Also, the chat and your posts are now the main components of your participation grade.
The midterm is on hold at the moment until I figure out makes sense going forward.
There are a few questions need you to answer for me, so please drop me an email with the following information:
* Can you access the Internet at home (via a desktop, laptop, phone, or tablet)?
* Do you have a place where you can set up to participate in a weekly video chat for an hour or so during our regular class time?
* Have you used Google Hangouts, Zoom, or Blackboard Collaborative? If so do you have a preference of one over the other?
* Do you have a gmail account? If so, please send me that address as Google provides the best platform for collaboration.
This is the first of what will likely be several emails in the coming days. Please respond as soon as you can to let me know you have received this email and provide answers to the questions above.
Most of all though, take care of yourselves and feel free to email me with any questions or concerns you may have.
Best,
Francine
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Francine Almash
Mellon Humanities Alliance Fellow
PhD Student in Urban Education
The Graduate Center-CUNY falmash@gradcenter.cuny.edu<mailto:falmash@gradcenter.cuny.edu>
I can access the Internet at home, and am able to participate in a place to participate in video chat. I have used Zoom before and it seems pretty easy to navigate through compared to Blackboard Collaborative. I do have a hunter gmail account which is sahmed20s@students.hunter.soe
I can access the Internet at home, and have a place to participate in video chat. I have used Zoom before and it seems pretty easy to navigate through compared to Blackboard Collaborative. I do have a hunter gmail account which is sahmed20s@students.huntersoe.org