Chat about Novel Coronavirus - 2019-nCoV - COVID-19

kids who have now lost two years of education

I don't disagree, but I also think there's an unfortunate quantification of children's learning going on in the media and messaging. Working in HE I'm aware that we need/prefer people to come in with certain skills, but I also think a lot of the talk about 'catching up' in terms of curriculum, is bullshit. I don't think you were meaning that exactly, just flagging it as a thing I've been noticing. I don't have any answers.

I'll speak as a dad with a kid in primary school. Some kids didn't do anything for a year.

(not mine)

Nevermind an ethics committee, how the heck would you design the study?
And then ensure compliance?
And then consider so many confounders to make it pointless.
Hence- even the massive Danish RCT- all have been published with massive caveats.

I suppose thats why Denmark's study was so inconclusive....it can only be done in a way that wouldn't otherwise harm people. I.e in a society with good social distancing, with pubs and bars shut and low covid rates.

Yeah, I don't have answers, but I've been doing data analysis for an assessment company for a large chunk of this year so maybe thinking about it a bit more than I would have in normal times. There will also be a knock-on for HE (where I do the rest of my work). And of course, reading about hundreds of thousands of kids missing classes any given week is also a bit worrying.

Gave up after less than 3m - Is there a point?

Things I wouldn't have expected:
getting into it with an international dj on twitter.

Carl Cox, Judge Jules or LTJ Bookham.

IANAParent or a teacher, but I'm not disputing that. It's more how we assess what's been missed and how to deal with it. Some kids didn't do anything. Some kids did stuff but not what they would have done at school. Do we label a whole cohort of kids as, essentially, being 'behind' in their learning? I'm probably using it in the wrong sense but there's curriculum as 'things to know about' - which should be flexible, but social skills, critical thinking, reasoning, collaborative working, that kind of stuff is more important in the long run anyway. I'm worried there's going to be a focus on 'quantity of stuff' and quantity of learning time (extended hours, extended terms etc) to the detriment of a generation of kids and those other skills. I don't know much about this.

As a parent, what's your hot take? Also, any teachers here?

Do we label a whole cohort of kids as, essentially, being 'behind' in their learning?

I think my concern has more to do with inequalities between those who, and who have not, been "left behind." I think I'm even more concerned that this inequality is almost certainly tied to pre-existing other inequalities. This may, quite possible, have a knock-on effect for many people for years to come - starting now with university admissions.

Nevermind an ethics committee, how the heck would you design the study?

Struggling to see how you could have a placebo mask for the control group for a double blind study.

this inequality is almost certainly tied to pre-existing other inequalities

Yes absolutely. I think I'm concerned about the whole lot in terms of what the gov approach/strategy is, and in the inequalities when it comes to how that is actioned. I guess a kind of theory concern and a practice concern. Which might not make any sense.

knock-on effect for many people for years to come

also seeing that knock-on effect at university, in workplaces etc. There will be an insidious pattern of 'under-achievement' mapped to your circumstances during covid which will also map to underlying inequalities. Seems obvious now but will we (as a society) remember?

Seems obvious now but will we (as a society) remember?

No, we will listen to those who were less impacted explain how they dragged themselves up by their bootstraps and that is how they got to a more advantageous position in life, everyone else was just lazy

No, we will listen to those who were less impacted explain how they dragged themselves up by their bootstraps and that is how they got to a more advantageous position in life, everyone else was just lazy

That.

Struggling to see how you could have a placebo mask for the control group for a double blind study.

This + blindfold

two blindfolds, idiot.

Hey man, I'm not a scientist. Just doing my best.

Just spent some time marvelling at a twitter thread where the author was proudly shouting about stumbling across evidence that only 403 people have died of Covid in Scotland during the whole pandemic.

https://mobile.twitter.com/TheRustler83/status/1411996035287863298

Yup. Because there is an active global conspiracy involving almost every single medic, government and scientist on the planet but they gave the game away by responding to an FOI request.

Actually, on second thoughts. maybe they just don't understand what they're looking at? Nah, TheRustler83 on Twitter sounds pretty credible...they can copy and paste graphs after all.

The mind boggles. These people call it the "greatest conspiracy the world has ever seen" but instead of considering that they might not just misunderstand what they are looking at, the greatest conspiracy the world has ever seen is vulnerable to somebody filing an FOI request in Scotland

Is it bigger than the FBI agents guarding the edge of the flat earth?

Maybe send an FOI request to the FBI...seems to be a flaw in quite a few global super conspiracies!

Went to Morrisons to get a few bits for dinner, and because of the wear a mask policy.

Very few wearing a mask properly, if at all.

what took you so long, this thread is 100x better with hurricane_run on mute, Lynx too although maybe he's calmed down