Bulletin No. 2, 2020

Coming Closer at a Distance: Snapshots of CUHK in the pandemic 9 Aspiring to be a teacher, he focused on developing a novel pedagogy to reduce students’ misunderstandings of physics in his dissertation. Throughout November, he taught his Form 4 students thrice a week: two online lessons and one face-to-face class. He taught, in his words, by ‘giving examples, sharing his knowledge, and letting students think for themselves.’ Hugo is a student himself. Having started his online classes in the second term of Year 3, he found asking questions and discussions not as direct and convenient as in brick- and-mortar classes. ‘My classmates wouldn’t stop raising hands in regular lectures. They asked professors questions during breaks and after lectures. Physics is a difficult subject; key concepts must be immediately grasped or clarified. If your questions are not answered at the very beginning, you won’t be able to go on.’ Now students ask questions in the online chat room. The queries, which keep rolling down, are often too overwhelming for professors to respond to all at once. During the third wave of COVID last summer, he was taking a course which required him to perform a short experiment on thermoelectric effect. He and his fellow classmates were each allotted a station in the laboratory. In keeping with social distancing, they came back at different times. The required lab sessions of the Physics Department mainly take place in the first two years; Hugo’s juniors told him in the lab sessions, the teaching assistants would do the experiments and record the processes and data for the students to do their own analyses. Hugo felt this vicarious conduct of experiments less than ideal. ‘Not only the experiment result, but the process itself is crucial. This is the limitation brought on by the pandemic.’ Regarding university life, Hugo lamented that more than half of it had slipped from his hands. He should have been enjoying his hostel life at the fully residential CW Chu College. Now the College’s graduation photo day, as well as the Service Team summer camp for secondary students, had all vanished into thin air. The orientation camp had turned into a one-day online event. ‘Online interaction is weird. It’s not easy to play interactive games online except chit-chatting. Private gatherings could be an alternative, but there was the ban on social gathering.’ Summer internship is another regret. Good at planning and managing his own affairs, he kept sending out job applications in his Year 3 summer holidays, hoping to land a teaching post. His efforts, though, were in vain. He gathered that many companies had cut internship vacancies. ‘An institution providing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) courses for children had only two teaching assistant openings. Unfortunately my application wasn’t successful,’ he observed calmly. Regrets make us more grateful for what we have. Hugo feels the fragility of interpersonal relationships in the absence of social contact. ‘It’s hard to stay connected. Social distancing is not just physical, like you and me sitting apart now,’ he sighed. ‘Keeping apart has made us aliens to one another. It is a harsh reminder for us to make the most of our getting together, and to explore something new together whenever we can. I’m about to graduate and it’s no longer easy to meet up for meals like we did in the past. I’ve lost so much experience and so many memories with friends because of the pandemic. University isn’t merely about studies; it is about experiencing life.’ As the last word fell, a shade of resignation passed through his face: ‘I feel that I’m getting old.’

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