= Premium Content

  • Monday, May 28, 2012

Previous

Next

Stay Connected with Family through Video Chats

June 28, 2011, 11:00 am

By Ryan Cordell

old-wedding-photoAfter writing about how I stayed connected with my family while in Victoria, this post definitely falls in the “so obvious I feel funny writing it” category. Nevertheless, as our family piled into the van this week, on our way to visit grandparents, aunts, and uncles, I thought about an essential technology that we use so often it no longer seems like technology. In short, we keep in touch with those far-flung family members using video chat programs on our phones and computers.

Given the extremely tough job market, academics often must live where their job happens to be, rather than in the part of the country where their friends and family are. This was the case for our family. When I got a job offer in Wisconsin, we packed up and left my family in Virginia. Our kids were used to having their grandparents two hours away; now they would be 16 hours away.

Fortunately, several years before we moved we had convinced my parents to buy an iMac with a built-in webcam. Our kids were already in the habit of video chatting with their grandparents almost every night. Sometimes they had things to tell each other; other times we’d just leave the camera on so that the grandparents could peek into our house and see what the grandkids were up to. We’ve embraced this mode of connecting even more since moving, both with the grandparents and with aunts and uncles (interestingly, with aunts and uncles we often connection through Facetime on our phones, rather than through a desktop app). Often we leave the camera running on important days. This past Christmas morning, for instance, we pointed the camera at the tree so that grandparents could feel a part of things as the kids opened their presents.

The important thing is the the kids see and hear their extended family members often. When we do visit—as we’ll be doing over the next few weeks—there are no awkward days of reacquaintance. The kids know their grandparents quite well, even though we live far away from them.

There are, of course, many video chat apps out there: iChat, AIM, Google Talk, Skype, etc. Any of them can help families connect. If you’re facing a move, I would strongly recommend arranging a video chat network with those you want your family to stay connected to. If that means buying grandma an iPad—you might consider doing so. How about you? How have you coped with the distance that academic life can often place between family members? Tell us about it in the comments.

[Creative Commons licensed photo by Flickr user sjdunphy.]

This entry was posted in Wellness and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Print
  • Comment
  • lizgloyn

    My parents and I began using MSN Messenger’s video function (which is what we still use) when I first went to university about ten years ago for a weekly videochat during term. When I moved to the US to do my PhD, we continued the habit. It’s made keeping in touch far easier, and it means I get to talk to my grandmother (now in her nineties and not at all comfortable with computers) whenever she’s over for Sunday lunch. It also helped when my mother was recovering from surgery, as I could see how she was doing rather than just hear from her. We’ve also done the Christmas present thing, although we tend to open presents from each other rather than from everyone in front of the video camera because of the time difference. But I agree with you – it’s been a real benefit for my relationship with my parents, and if I have to live apart from my partner next year, we’re planning on using video chats to keep up with each other too.

  • bcbailey64

    I started using Skype in 2004 when I had a home office as a means of keeping in touch with business colleagues and family when I was on the road. There has been a phenomenal improvement in video/sound quality and ease of use in just 7 years. Based on the rate of progress I assume we’ll all be using “transporters” a la Star Trek by 2020! ;)

  • http://twitter.com/gurulibrarian Diana Moore

    We use the Fring app so that my daughter can visit with my ex-husband once a week via video chat. He has an android, and I have an iPhone. It works well for us for the time being.

  • http://profiles.google.com/borchers.brian Brian Borchers

    I spent the fall of 2010 on sabbatical leave in Los Angeles.  My wife wasn’t able to come along because of her job, so we used Skype and Google Voice almost daily.  I’m a huge fan of both, although I tend to use Skype more for prearranged sessions while using Google Voice for regular incoming calls. 
     

  • justoneopinion1

    AACC has done much worse. They have terminated people without giving any reason and is notorious for violating academic freedom. Racial and sex discrimination are rife, but the powers that be have the underlings too scared to do anything.

  • jffoster

    Against which race(s) is the discrimmination?

  • justoneopinion1

    Does it matter? Is it okay to discriminate again one group but not another? It goes all ways. The administration has become bloated with control freaks who are more concerned with quantity rather than quality.

  • jffoster

    Well it seems to matter to quite a number of people. Cf. the notices above re the ruling of a rump bench of the U S Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.  Apparently to those two judges, it is unconstitutional to NOT discrimminate on the basis of race of a minority race, or maybe “the” minority race is the one benefiting from the discrimmanation.  I wondered if the racial discrimmination at AACC were the old kind, which is generally agreed to be unconstitutional, or the new kind, which at least some hold to be forbidden by the constitution to have a policy against.

    Oh well. I like that other college in Anne Arundel County better anyway.  The one by the bay “where Severn joins the tide”.

  • panacea

    The student committed a crime.  It is illegal to make a recording secretly in Maryland.  You have to have consent of all parties being recorded.

    The professor has grounds for legal action as a result.

  • lizziec

    The “other college” in Anne Arundel, to which you refer, is a whole different demographic/student population/issue/school/case. No comparison!

  • retrenchment

    And the college should be telling the student(s) “if you have a difference of opinion with a professor, ask for a meeting. Don’t use illegal methods to solve problems.”

  • drprof

    I went through the same thing with AACC’s criminal justice department although there was no video.   Just all of a sudden, we aren’t offering you any more courses to teach in our distance learning program.  In my case, it was reverse discrimination since I’m white and the department is run by two African American professors.  Probably was the best thing for me in the end because their pay scale for teaching online courses was fairly close to the bottom of pay scales for online professors. 

  • barbarashell

    …uh, I think the posts above got off topic a bit. I believe that most [all?] institutions do not guarantee continued employment to adjunct teachers/professors/instructors. It may not seem fair, but reasons need not be conveyed as to why they are declined the offer of employment.

  • drangie

    For better or worse, I think barbarshell is right: adjuncts, who are usually hired on a semester-by-semester, or perhaps year-to-year basis, have no expectation of continued employment beyond any given appointment.  It seems that the reason this individual was not hired was that, well, he was not hired.  I think panacea is also probably correct: the surreptitious recording of anyone is, in many jurisdictions, illegal.  I don’t know the particulars of this location, but it would be a worthwhile fact for the reporter to determine.

  • retrenchment

    It’s explained here. http://www.citmedialaw.org/about/citizen-media-law-project 
    Twelve states have the “two-party consent” law.
    The AAUP has a whole bunch of recommendations as to how colleges should deal with contingents, but I can’t see any reason a college is going to get into trouble by not following them. This college was “one of the best places to work” in a 2010 CHE poll, and it doesn’t look like they take these recommendations seriously.
    Panacea, against whom does Professor Hubinger have a legal claim?

  • squiddude

    Slightly off track–but what does “a letter” from the AAUP actually accomplish?  I frequently see references to letters or complaints to or “investigations” done on the part of the AAUP, but I am never sure what impact these actually have.  Does the organization have any sort of significant authority?

  • drangie

    In a word: no.

  • retrenchment

    During my first few years adjuncting, I occasionally spoke angrily to students (though always regretted it.)  As I saw adjuncts getting dropped, I became more cautious, but also, simultaneously, I was becoming a better teacher and communicator. It’s probably neither necessary, nor a good idea, to speak angrily, but it ought to be excusable sometimes. 
    If this is not the first instance of complaint about his teaching style, it’s a good question whether anything was ever conveyed to him. Many work in the prison of little or no feedback. This may be another example of an often poor level of functioning in contingent work. If someone isn’t working out, just replace him, as easily as you would a light bulb. Except teachers are not light bulbs; in the proper setting they usually improve over time. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bert-Hubinger/100002667219947 Bert Hubinger

    Please let me explain that this is not about discrimination but about breaking the law both by the student Mike Fowler and by AACC staff Ron DeAbreu, among others.  I filed charges against both, and the matter is pending.  I claim no special immunity only to be treated fairly with the same ethics one would expect from any such institution.  Fowler and the college are still hoping to get away with despicable crime.  Whether the case goes to court or not, it was a dispicable series of events that ought to be aired in a more public forum.  The facts and the law are on my side, just not the “powers that be” — it is also a case of cyber abuse, cyber harrassment, almost certainly libelous.  I hope this clarifies the events somewhat.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bert-Hubinger/100002667219947 Bert Hubinger

    please see the professor’s comments to justoneopinion1

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bert-Hubinger/100002667219947 Bert Hubinger

    It is true that people can be fired for no reason, but without paying heed to the circumstances of the event in the case one is missing the point of the story.  I do not ask for sympathy, exoneration, financial assistance (beyond unemployment insurance), or martyrdom.  I ask that intelligent people respect my intelligence and consider the foul nature of the actions of others in this case –it bodes ill for the future of all teachers, adjunct or otherwise. The tail is wagging the dog.  My being fired is my problem, but you are welcome to judge for yourself whether this is merely a personnel matter, and I merely a burned-out light bulb, as you put it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bert-Hubinger/100002667219947 Bert Hubinger

    Please understand the story as presented in the Chronicle is incomplete.  I will be happy to provide the complete story to any one who is interested — the facts and the details will not come from the college or the student, who hope this will all blow away.  Please help me shine the light on their malfeasance, if only for the sake of other teachers who may be victimized by this crime.   

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bert-Hubinger/100002667219947 Bert Hubinger

    Amen.  Please help me share that message with the world!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bert-Hubinger/100002667219947 Bert Hubinger

    please see my other comments.  The powers that be committed a crime in collusion with the student.  I seek to broadcast that  fact, and not my personal situation, although any details you might want are certainly available (far beyond the short article in the Chronicle)

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.

  • The Chronicle of Higher Education
  • 1255 Twenty-Third St, N.W.
  • Washington, D.C. 20037