ID swipes

 This topic kind of relates to my last post in a way that deals with visitor restrictions. However this more deals with how they are enforcing and implementing the restrictions.

The ID swipe. I think it's a good idea for what its used for, and then a bad idea for the extra money they had to spend just to make sure we didn't have visitors. Let me explain. The RA's working the front desk ask everyone to swipe in their ID to make sure we actually live in the building. I'm sure some people try and sneak in their friends or what not but they'll most likely get caught with having to swipe in their ID and it shows that they live in a different building. Knowing this, kids won't even bother trying to get their friends in and instead go meet up somewhere else.

Furthermore, students have to scan their ID at the front doors first to even open the doors. In other words, students can't open the doors to dorms if they don't live there. All the swiping at the front desk to make sure we live there is doing nothing except making us swipe in twice every time we enter our dorms. Especially if most of us walk in by ourselves coming back from class or getting food, there is no possible way for us to even open the door if we didn't live there. Most of the time it is a burden, as for me I usually come back with food and have to put it all down to get my ID out.

I am overexaggerating a little on how much of a burden and waste of money it is since it is only an extra minute or two out of my day and only one small swiping machine in each of the housing dorms. I think my point when trying writing this was just to show how much the University is doing to keep the virus in check when they don't need to do this much. If people continue to go out off campus they will probably contract the virus eventually if they haven't already. No amount of on-campus restrictions will keep college students from being college students.

Comfortable Prison

Covid kind of put a hold on all things social. To increase these matters, school, such as our University of Kentucky, have placed restrictions on every kind of gathering, guests in dorms, where to sit anywhere on campus, etc. In doing so, us students are virtually confined to one place. 

The video you see here is my dorm room. I am in here just about all the time except to get food and an occasional Saturday when I might go golfing with some friends. It sucks, but it is my very own comfortable prison. From what I've seen and heard about prisons from movies, they are able to come out of their cells for meals and once a day for yard time. Similarly, I only come out of my room for meals at Champs, and a couple times a week to hang with friends off campus. I don't complain about it too much because I know it could be worse. I have my computer and constant internet access along with most of my belongings and my own shower with a roommate. I have been lucky enough so far to not have tested positive for the virus and therefore have not been subjected to not leaving my room at all and having food brought to me for 2 weeks. 

It is a good conversation starter though as it is usually my first response when friends or family back home call and ask how it's been. Then I continue on about the details of how much I can go out and do. Same conversation every time. My one critique however is with the restrictions of guests in other dorms. They originally said no guests for the first couple weeks and then we would be allowed to have visitors on like September 7th or something. Then they extended that date 2 weeks. Then they extended that date 2 more weeks again. It has now been a little over a month, and now I have lost all trust that they'll ever allow the guests. We are college students, we find a way to get together with our friends anyways. Would they rather us go out in public with even more people just to hang out? That's kind of the big question I always think about. And why try to keep our hopes up that we'll ever have guests when we know they'll probably push it back longer? It just doesn't make sense. 

Anyways, this is still my personal prison with only me and my roommate. 

Online Education

Thanks to Covid, schools have resorted to online learning. They had to start up the school year somehow and it was able to get done by moving to zoom lectures, videos, and lots of online files. The issue however, lies within students' abilities to learn remotely.

Let me rephrase: The issue lies within the students' abilities to pay attention and focus enough to continue learning effectively. I recently got asked if this new online learning we have become accustomed to has provided an equal opportunity for learning. I personally think it has. However, there are some aspects that are more difficult to deal with that I do not think are as equal.

The opportunity to learn is more than equal and fair. At first, in the end of the spring semester 2020, it was not as equal as teachers were scrambling to figure out how to finish the semester remotely when they've never had to deal with anything like this before. Most students did have to teach themselves at least a little bit of material from the lack of lectures or class time. And teachers also had to compensate for students who didn't have quick, reliable internet or computer access at home. 

But that was all unprepared, nobody was ready for anything like that to occur. Now we are in the fall semester of 2020 and professors and instructors had time to prepare their schedule and lay out their plan for students. This allowed all students to have the same opportunities to learn as teachers posted lecture videos, hosted regularly scheduled zoom meetings/lectures, and provided more than enough resources for students to learn. The online learning does not take into account the social or emotional aspect of being in a classroom with others, but the videos they provide for us to watch along with zoom classes and other material are the same videos and lectures we would see as if they were in person. Every student has access to the same resources and classwork even though the resources are online. 

For the spring semester, schools allowed students to drop classes or waive their final grades because of Covid's quick surge in the US. For this semester though, I don't believe schools should give any kind of extensions or lenience on the grading policies. I believe if students fail their classes and attempt to blame it on online learning, then they were simply being lazy. Students will still fail some classes don't get me wrong, but it won't be because of the remote teaching.

Schools and businesses and society in general will eventually get back to normal. We will be able to walk around without having a mask on, we can gather for parties and big events, and teachers will be able to host in person classes again. At that point we can get rid of all these issues that stem from remote education. A lot of countries in Europe and Asia are already doing it. The kids learning in these countries should have an advantage against people who are still learning online. Not an advantage with the material of their classes, but with labs and other classes that include some kind of hands on learning that you can't get from an online lecture. From a hiring perspective, depending on what kind of hands on teaching was acquired that an online-taught student didn't receive should be a competitive advantage. However, most labs and hands on type classes are the few classes still being taken in person or as a hybrid class so in the end I don't think people who are already back to learning in person won't have any sort of advantage in the job market.

So many questions have arose about the future and how much Covid could affect it, but we won't find out until we get there and that could be years. Hopefully it isn't too much longer, but for now, it doesn't seem like it'll be anytime soon.

UK Core Issue: How Do We Distribute Covid Vaccines?

 A county-wide vaccine distribution is someone's job. In this entry I am going to detail how I would handle this dilemma if it was my job.

I don't know the demographics of Fayette County as most people don't. However, being a part of a college community, I have made the assumption that a good portion of the population consists of younger individuals. What I don't know is the racial, gender, or economic distribution. This is important to be ignorant to, because my distribution wouldn't be biased toward race, gender, or socioeconomic status.

To distribute the vaccine, I would only factor in age and people with underlying health conditions. People over the age of 50 would receive the vaccine, as well as anybody with diabetes, asthma, any organ conditions, etc. All the people that fall under these criteria are at the highest risk of Covid having a negative health effect on them and will most likely be symptomatic. 

The rest of the third of vaccines will go as follows. It has been seen that you are unlikely to get Covid once you have already gotten it. People who have yet to test positive for the virus and are still being extremely cautious about contracting will be next. It will be first come first serve for the rest of the vaccines, but only for people who meet the criteria.

I feel like this would be the most effective way to distribute a limited amount of vaccines without being biased toward certain classes and helping the people who would greatly benefit from a vaccine. 

Pop Culture vs. Pandemic: Who prevails

The global pandemic caused by Covid-19 has taken a massive toll on how we live our lives and probably how we will continue to live our lives as we move on past the pandemic in the future. I have taken the liberty of finding a couple of examples for y'all to see exactly how the pandemic has altered our way of life through pop culture.

The video above displays how schools across the country have adapted to a new learning environment during the pandemic. Since nobody is allowed to be near each other without risking exposure to the virus, schools have resorted to zoom meetings, online lectures, pre-recorded videos, etc to teach their students remotely. This video however doesn't just display the new learning environment, it also exemplifies how we, as students, still find ways to enjoy ourselves, have fun, and connect with others by coordinating carefully planned pranks on the teacher during these zoom meetings. With one student recording all the action, these pranks go viral and it becomes the new fad for students to attempt pranks remotely. The new trend then sets the stage for others to try and "top it" by coming up with better and more original pranks. This has become our form of entertainment with the outside world being put on hold to slow down the disease.

My next example is when things began to relax a little on the restrictions. In Tyne, England, Sam Fender performed a concert for about 2500 fans. 

However, this wasn't just any concert with 2500 people. Only in groups of no more than 5 people, everybody was split up into these metal platforms that were all organized and separated to comply with CDC guidelines and social distancing rules. Possibly being the new norm, the way this event was held could be how big events would be handled going forward. This newly invented "pop culture" and how it presents itself has the potential to be the lengths we will go to in attempts to host big events and other social gatherings. Clearly there are a lot less people attending than there would be without a pandemic with so much separation between people, but that only means there might be even more events planned so everyone can have the opportunity to go. Maybe? I'm trying to be optimistic but if they want to make money and keep society and culture flowing, they are going to have to put on a lot more shows for more people. At least that's how I see it and feel like that would be the best option for big events to move forward. 

Anyways, this is what pop culture is like now, with our entertainment stemming from poking fun at the pandemic and original designs for how to put on a concert, this could be what we do for a good amount of time moving forward. There is a good chance of a vaccine coming around and then everything going back to normal but that probably won't be for a while and there is also the chance of another epidemic of other origins that will make us go back to this separated way of life. Something to think about.