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Thread: Yesterday, I complained about the fact that many professors are not thinking about accessibility for poor students in #Botany2020. Despite being in an R1 institution Hawaii is extremely diverse, the most financially disadvantaged students @UH are our Native Hawaiians 1/n
They attend college thanks to local scholarships and they come from rural zones in the islands. These students do not have the internet at home and very often they do not have laptops. Their only accessibility is via cell phones. With the transition to online 2/n
they were required to travel by bus to campus, reserve a laptop in the library, or use their phone to connect to the campus wifi. This is risky during the pandemic and the amount of time and resources invested is already costly. As a professor 3/n
planning a class that will require them to pay for an expensive book or expensive online tool is putting these students in further disadvantage. Most of them used to have low paying jobs to pay for books, those jobs have disappeared during the pandemic 4/n
So consider choosing an open-education book for this semester, and supplementing material. Don't ask them to pay for fancy online tools unless is critical. Many years ago I was that student and believe me it is not fun to spent hours in the library reading the reserved copy 5/n
Consider teaming up with other classes to reduce the cost of online tools you require. If you want a cheap option for online blackboards Zoom +GoodNotes+Youtube works like a charm and it is completely free for students (end of rant!)
