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Those COVID apps some colleges are trying to force students to download? Worse than useless. You know what else is worse than useless? Bringing the students together for a few weeks, and then sending them home in a panic, to seed new clusters. New piece. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/09/pandemic-no-excuse-colleges-surveil-students/616015/
I've seen a lot of psychologizing of higher-ed and COVID: students are young & have a risk-taking brain etc. I think that's the wrong approach. We should, instead, sociologize the question. College is *also* about socializing. We all know this & pretending otherwise doesn't work.
Yes but... Problem remains even if digital contact-tracing worked perfectly. Institutions have manifest and latent functions. A latent function of K-12 is childcare. A latent function of higher-ed is socializing. Pretending these don't exist will not work. https://twitter.com/jacob_r_schulz/status/1301871089329504260
For anything to do with humans and institutions, you have to get the sociology of the situation right. Smart people often think everything about society and people is obvious. Physicists *especially* seem to think this. Usually ends like this. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ https://twitter.com/yellingatwind/status/1301588828860235777
Yep. And, somewhat surprisingly, we even saw this failure of missing the true sociology of the situation in some portions of the medical community in response to the pandemic. Not to mention many governments. https://twitter.com/margaretomara/status/1301903113150967814
Pictures, thousands of words, etc. https://twitter.com/xkcdComic/status/1301962895303925762
But that's not what's happening in colleges. Northeastern is reported to have dismissed 11 students found in violation of COVID gathering guidelines, and without refunding their $36,500 tuition for the semester. https://twitter.com/Aging_Scientist/status/1301987853820456960
How is this supposed to work? Young people will learn to hide better, and will seed outbreaks since they can hide their (usually mild) symptoms, too, even if they get sick. https://twitter.com/bostonglobe/status/1302234866164142080
I know whose responsibility it is not: the 18-year-olds brought together to a place where socializing *is* one of the (latent) functions of the institution. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/09/pandemic-no-excuse-colleges-surveil-students/616015/
Unsurprising. Nothing else could be expected. And if we blame young students instead of admitting the obvious—that we set them up to fail—they'll hide infections to avoid draconian punishment and perhaps seed outbreaks with parents/vulnerable communities. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/06/us/colleges-coronavirus-students.html
