No wifi, Cant attend Class!!

So you couldn't make it to class. You had warned me that you had no more data on your phone. Till then I hadn't realised you were attending class using your phone. I went back to look at the Teams site I had set up for the class - how does it work on the phone, I wondered. Not great I realised. And then the 3-hour class, twice a week with me. 6 more hours with others. That's a lot of time to be online on your phone.

I did say to you - hey, why don't you write to your provider. Ask them to give you free data. Maybe just for the few months of isolation. Without data, you cannot attend class. The census date is next week - has the thought of dropping out occurred to you? Don't, I have loved having you in class. You bring a certain authenticity to the class. I need you in there.

I have been waiting, you haven't written to me. Nothing in Teams. I sent you my phone number. It didn't ring with an unknown number on it.

Was it a sense of shame? You have lost your job. You don't have the funds now to get a good quality internet plan - one that will give you a great time in class. Online, doing Video, file share and fast. As good as if you had been in class. You need to watch the funds you have remaining. Did you have to stand in that long Centrelink line? Did you manage to sort things?

How many of you out there have poor data plans, or no more data on your phone? Living in a share house with the rent weighing on your mind. Also food? And now this - how will you attend class on Monday, next week, all of next month. You need 24 hrs of data on your computer, not that mobile phone plan.

How many of you? How many? We are a country with gigantic universities. So a lot of you, is my guess. 700,000? A million?

Someone suggested a #getup campaign. Couldn't it be simpler? Couldn't the providers just give everyone a wifi connection? For the four weeks, the two months. Then reassess.

Are we not that generous?

#andypenn #inakiberroeta #ruslankogan

... it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.