Staying Close While Keeping Distance
I know it’s an understatement, but this has been a weird couple of weeks, huh? As unnerving as it all might be, I’m glad to see our community taking action to prepare and protect our more vulnerable neighbors. This kind of community effort is strange to us all, but especially here in Acadiana where we are more accustomed to “pulling together” as a community to overcome trying times. Instead we keep hearing about “social distancing.”
The latest recommendation for sizes of gatherings (which has been rapidly changing in the past few days) is no larger than 10 people. While this concept might be counter-intuitive to our tight knit social circles and coteries, our elected officials and health authorities are telling us that it is part of the solution to the spread of this virus and keeping our community safe and flattening the curve.
Fortunately, we have many readily available communication technologies, literally at our fingertips. From text to phone calls to “Facetime” we are, for the most part, able to stay connected even when we are far away.
AOC has always been into helping you talk to your community, it’s kind of our specialty! So during this time of hunkering down, we thought one way we could help is by offering additional assistance to facilitate staying close while keeping distance. So we are putting this special blog together where we will share tips, tools, and techniques for communicating on all scales using technology.
Some of the topics we’ll be covering:
How to provide remote support to friends and family who are less familiar with technology so that you can keep in touch.
Getting the most out of Google Hangouts for remote meetings and classes.
Teaching like a gamer, How to enhance an online presentation for streaming video using simple free production software
Can I make a TV show on my phone to reach people who might not have easy access to the internet? AOC can help you do that!
We will try to update at least daily. if you have any requests for topics please feel free to leave them in the comments below, or email them to info@aocinc.org. In addition to the written format, we’ll also do our best to post video, audio, and even host live streams when we can.
Let’s all do our part to keep eachother safe and take care of eachother in this unprecedented set of circumstances; be kind and stay in touch, without touching.
P.S. If you are looking for advice or assistance using communication technology, we will be glad to set up a remote meeting with you over the phone or online communication at no charge. Email production@aocinc.org or call us at 337-232-4434 and press 4 to get in touch with our production department directly. Let us know how we can help. We will schedule an appointment with our most knowledgeable staff member on the topic. Even if we are unfamiliar with the topic at hand, we are all pretty experienced in troubleshooting technology and we will do our best to help.
Image Credit: Long Distance Relationships by Valor Dictus This photo was featured in the Sept. 30 article "Going the extra mile". valordictus.com/2010/09/30/going-the-extra-mile/ , This image was not altered.