This year I realized that what I tell students, “If the writing is hard, you have not done enough reporting,” is true also for academic papers and projects. Having to find / read / understand / synthesize dozens of research papers and book chapters is not a skill I had…

I did not intend to turn this into a series, but for context, you can also read: How do you reopen universities after COVID-19 (April 13) Returning to campus. Safely? (August 16) An open letter to Mizzou (August 24) We have been working at this ‘dealing with a global pandemic’…

In-person classes resume this morning at the University of Missouri-Columbia after more than five months of remote learning. And we should be concerned to do so without any guidance from Mizzou regarding the number or distribution of COVID-19 cases on and off campus. Students have been moving into our residence…

I am returning to campus on Monday for the first time in a while. It has been 160 days since I last saw an actual student in person. …

There are three costs involved in identifying, approving, building and operating any new product or feature: Direct Cost — The expense of purchasing, licensing, developing, testing and integrating. Opportunity Cost — The risk that the time you are investing might be better spent elsewhere. Support Cost — The ongoing time…

With the generous support of the Walter B. Potter Fund for Innovation in Local Journalism and the Reynolds Journalism Institute, the Missouri School of Journalism is launching a summer pop-up newsroom staffed by 10 current MU journalism students and recent graduates. A formal unveiling will take place soon, but as…

A quick addendum to the gear list below. I am now splitting time between the home office and the work office so have reallocated and added some items. The ring lights and camera are the same but what is new:

EDIT: I am adding additional relevant links to the list at the bottom of the story. Deciding how and when to reopen colleges and universities will be as contentious and a difficult as the question of when to reopen the economy in general. And with a few additional complications: Medium/large…

Update 5/22: In the comments, Ricardo Matosinhos notes that Zoom version 5.0.x on May 24 will restore virtual camera function: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201361963-New-updates-for-macOS Update 5/12: As noted by Raymond Perfetti in the comments, Zoom is forcing an upgrade to 5.0 as of 5/31 so the original solution (re-install 4.6.x) will not work…