Nobody’s Hero

Entry 063 for Monday June 15, 2020

I have always questioned the use of the word hero and how we don’t reserve it for the true heroes in society. A long discussion for another time, this title related to my nomination with many other colleagues as “Nuestros héroes del aula virtual” for our institution. Every time I think of that word, I am reminded of one of my favourite Rush songs:

The core questions:

Credit goes to Ben and readers of his blog for these “Four Questions” and the five stretch questions.

1. What did you do today? Wrangling: doing my most to help students deliver some missing items to ensure they pass the course (in the case of #Semana18) or are not missing points due to oversight; waiting for work to come in last moment, individual emails to students asking them to be sure they are “good with their grade’; #educoffee with Martín in the morning, Viviana and Adriana in the afternoon; recorded and released a #TechEduTips video about #educoffee; received the news that I was nominated to present at our upcoming RNP 2020.
   
2. What did you enjoy? I’ve been working really hard and putting in extra time and energy in an effort to help colleagues at my institution and outside with our shifts to more online classes. I’m not doing it for the credit (see that video on #educoffee which I should translate to English), not at all. That said, it feels good to be recognized. Every year we have been an annual gathering of “all faculty” at a campus. Obviously not all, but at least a thousand (maybe two?). We share experiences, plan for changes and often big announcements and the annual awards for “Profesor Inspirador” happen then. This year will be fully online and with an obvious online focus. I was nominated as one of the “Nuestros héroes del aula virtual”. There are various tracks that I needed to choose from. What is interesting is the (so far) it appears most presentations are focused on mechanics, on tools and techniques. True to my form over the past 6 years or so, I choose the track “Acompañemiento académico y emocional bajo el MFD” (note: MFD is for ‘Modelo Flexible Digital’) and at the time I submitted I was the only one in that track. Of course, I will be talking about my #educoffee project.
3. What did you find difficult? Chasing down students and in some cases failing to reach them. I want to help them all but I can’t always do that.
4. What has changed? It seems strange that this morning I recorded a video about #educoffee for #TechEduTips. I still struggle explaining to others what this thing is and why I am doing it. Hopefully that helps, I plan to explore more how to leverage this project for more good. So the change is that this “throw away”/”why not?” project has grown into something larger.

Featured Image Credit

Video Released Today