OFD Newsletter: April 20, 2020

April 20, 2020 jphollow 5-min. read

Bandwidth Depletion and Recovery in COVID-19 Remote Learning

Tuesday, April 28, 9:30-10:30 a.m. on Zoom (REGISTER)
Wednesday, April 29, 3:00-4:00 p.m. on Zoom (REGISTER)
Presenter: Cia Verschelden, MSW, EdD

Each of us has a finite amount of mental bandwidth – attentional resources – for all the tasks in our lives. The realities of this public health crisis distract all of us and threaten our ability to concentrate our cognitive resources on school and work. These are uncertain times and uncertainty is a huge bandwidth stealer.

Although people from all walks of life, social classes, and identities have contracted COVID-19, the devastating effects of both the illness and the shutdown of much economic activity have disproportionately affected people of color and those living in poverty. Our students – and some of their instructors – have been challenged to find the cognitive capacity to focus on their courses and their learning.

For many of us, stay-at-home orders meant that we could shelter where we were safe. We could do our work from home and continue to get paychecks and be able to pay our bills and feed ourselves and our families.

For many of our students (and possibly some of our staff, including part-time instructors), the stay at home order may have meant:

Loss of hourly wages
No breakfast and lunch programs for school children
The extreme stress of being confined at home in neighborhoods where it’s not safe to be outside
Added responsibilities of childcare and home-schooling with few resources
Illness and threat of illness with inadequate or no health insurance
Dependence on public transportation where social distancing is compromised
Lack of the technology needed to keep up with classes transitioned to online

And all this in addition to the everyday bandwidth depletion from poverty, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and other social realities.

To help students recover a bit of bandwidth for learning, we need to acknowledge that the regular learning challenges that were already unequal are now even more so. When students are fearful and uncertain, the bandwidth available for learning is severely limited. In this webinar, we will discuss several strategies that can be used in classrooms and by the university in support of students to increase certainty and help students recover bandwidth.

Fulbright Informational Session with Fulbright Program Specialist

When: May 14, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. EST

Interested in teaching or conducting research abroad? Consider a Fulbright Fellowship. Fulbright funds over 2,000 awards annually in more than 140 countries. As a Fulbright Scholar you can expand your network, foster lasting relationships, serve as an ambassador for international exchange, and gain valuable experience working and teaching abroad. Fulbright is family-friendly and flexible; Fellowships range anywhere from two weeks, in the case of Fulbright Specialists, to a year for Fulbright scholars.

Join us on May 14th from 1:00 – 2:30 pm for our Spring Fulbright Informational Session. Fulbright Outreach and Recruitment Specialist, Michelle Bolourchi, will provide an overview of current Fulbright programming, answer your questions, and offer suggestions for applicants. This event will be recorded for those unable to attend.

Please RSVP for this virtual event via the Google Form. The Zoom link for this event will be shared with those who RSVP in advance of the session. This event is sponsored by the Office of Faculty Affairs. For more information, please contact Director of External Faculty Awards and Recognition, Maria Almanza (maria_almanza@ncsu.edu).

Fulbright Fridays: One-on-One Advising

When: Every Friday from May 1 – Septemper 4, 2020
Fulbright Fridays is an opportunity for faculty and staff to get one-on-one advice on Fulbright programming and support for developing your application materials. Fulbright Fridays is aimed at applicants at all stages of the process, whether you are just contemplating applying or are working on materials.

What is Fulbright? The Fulbright program funds over 2,000 awards annually in more than 140 countries. As a Fulbright Scholar you can expand your network, foster lasting relationships, serve as an ambassador for international exchange, and gain valuable experience working and teaching abroad. Fulbright is family-friendly and flexible; Fellowships range anywhere from two weeks, in the case of Fulbright Specialists, to a year for Fulbright scholars.

What is Fulbright Friday? Every Friday from May 1st- Sept 4th the Director of External Faculty Awards and Recognition, Dr. Maria Almanza, will be available for individual meetings. Appointments are available for up to an hour and are dictated by the needs of applicants. To reach more faculty, available time slots will alternate each week between 9-12 and 12-3. Interested faculty and staff can sign up by searching the google calendar available here or at https://go.ncsu.edu/fulbrightfriday.

How do I sign up? 1) Click on an available calendar slot. Appointment slots are available each Friday beginning May 1st. 2) At the bottom of the “Book Appointment” screen, click save. This will automatically generate an invite and place a hold on the time slot. 3) I will email you shortly after to gather more information about your needs and to share a zoom invite to our meeting.

For more information or if you have difficulties in booking an appointment, please contact Dr. Maria Almanza (maria_almanza@ncsu.edu).

Libraries Open Café

Join the Libraries for the casual “Open Café” via Zoom and enjoy a relaxed, coffeeshop-style chat about Open Educational topics. Every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. starting April 22, we’ll talk about a different topic.

Drop in for ten minutes or stay for the whole hour. Feel free to join in the chatter, or just relax and listen to others.

To celebrate the opening of the virtual café, the topic of conversation for week one will be the transition to online learning. We will swap stories of how things have gone, share successes and challenges, and discuss how open education can help mitigate the challenges of remote learning.

Please join us in the café via go.ncsu.edu/opencafe