I want to begin with the final question that our instructor proposed. How in the internet changing at this moment in time? This moment in time meaning the current quarantine and Covid-19 pandemic.  

I do not necessarily see a change in the way the internet is being utilized, what I see is people changing to adapt to a new situation using currently available technology. When a person that can’t leave their house due to uncontrollable factors, they are forced to use the internet to connect with the people that they would normally connect with on a daily basis. Every walk of life is affected during times like these, but for the sake of our class, I will stick to talking about how I see the university school system changing, or at least evolving into a more modern system for all.  

The existence of programs like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, One Note, Skype and Discord has been around for a long time now. However, I feel that up until this point they have been under-utilized in schools and universities since their creation.  

Being present in a physical brick-and-mortar classroom does have its advantages to the individual that is learning; but for some of us, and I will go as far as to say that for most of us who don’t live in the dorms, it is actually a major inconvenience. Personally, to go to school at CofC with the goal of getting a degree that is actually respected, rather than an online degree from some random university… I drive a minimum of 100 miles a day to attend even just one class. Luckily, I am a Veteran and have many things provided for me, but could you imagine the other adult learners who don’t have the same luxuries available to them? How could one support a family, have a job, daily personal responsibilities and then try to get a degree at a reputable university such as CofC?? 

They couldn’t without killing themselves and destroying their relationships with anyone other than the students in their classes and even then, time would still be very limited and it would be hard to make mutually benefiting connections.  

I’ve taken many “online courses” and still don’t know much about those subjects compared to what I would have learned in a traditional classroom, but with the internet and programs like Zoom, those online courses would be more like traditional courses with all of the same social contact, accountability and commitment  that is normally seen in a traditional classroom environment. I for one, am sad that our class did not vote as a majority to have our classes administered over Zoom. 

I truly hope that our current academic situation will evolve to add this format of classes into their system leading to the benefit of education for those who would not be able to receive it otherwise.  

As for my own viewing habits since the quarantine, they have not changed much. I watch some weird, but interesting to me things, mostly on YouTube. Last week, I watched a man who had dipped pond water out of his pond and created a sealed ecosphere to document the changes over a period of two weeks, which then led to more videos on more sealed ecospheres and their documentation. Things like that interest me. I’ve never been much of a fiction guy, I like facts and I like science. For some reason, it is very hard for me to sit and watch something that is not in some way based on facts or reality, it has just never interested me.