This is probably not the best time to write about my experiences of the last few days. I've had more than my share of technical difficulties today; I'd meant to be remotely present at a committee meeting, and downloaded Skype for that reason, but network connectivity problems (I think) kept blowing me offline. It's a cautionary tale for those who blithely believe that working remotely is always easy. It didn't help that I was having classroom technical difficulties of the same type as well. Teaching with technology is wonderful when it works, but when you can't get connected . . . no maps, no Google Earth . . .
But enough of that. We also did without computers this week on purpose, and the weather cooperated. The two pictures at the top are of our hands-on navigation exercise. I'm hoping it gave students a better sense of what it might have been like for Early Modern seaborne explorers, who were probably lost a good deal of the time. The risks they ran are almost inconceivable to modern people, yet their lives on land were probably not that much safer, what with risks from childhood diseases, infection, plagues, violence, war, and so on. London's population grew exponentially during this period, even though the city's birthrate was far outpaced by its death rate. Lots of immigrants from the country.
Chris also did the program's annual hike to Grantchester, which I had to miss because of my computer work. These are just a few of the students, sipping there. The hikers also managed to find a local youth hangout near the river, complete with informational sign and exhibitionist revelers. No pictures of that, apparently.
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