what can we do?

Some Reflections in times of the Corona-Pandemic (updated version)
In these times it difficult not feel helpless and vulnerable. But what could one possibly do about this? Of course the situation is the same everywhere, so these reflections should be seen as optional, more about this later. Because of Social Distancing (Wp), which means in most of the cases means staying home, a lot of human being having now more time than before. How can this time be used?

1. Watching/Reading the news. I am telling this "my" students, the students, who study Intercultural Communication with me. 
2. Taking action. Blogging  is my of doing it. There are other possibilities: Global citizens (HP in English for further explanations), supporting the UN (R. Falk Blog 3/4/2020) or Friday for Future Japan (of course in Japanese)   
3. Learning a new language or using English for better understanding of global facts, like global warming, loss of biodiversity or other elements of the ecological crisis (Wp) or waching Planet of the Humans (Youtube)     
4. Learning about mankind's quite desperate situation on earth in non fiction: "Loosing Earth" (Wp, soon on Apple TV), but more fatalistic, than political criticizes Naomi Klein (in the Interzept)     
5. The Guardian tells that there no fictions about climate change but I I have my doubt about this. I think that some anime like 'Children of the Sea' (海獣の子供 in Japanese) or "weathering with you" (in Japanese: 天気の子) are reflecting about ecological changes, in poetic way. But these films are of course no active reflection of the topic.       
6.  Using our money from the stimulus package (Guardian 7/4/2020). 10000 Yen is indeed not so much, it is better than nothing, but for a lot of people, who lost their jobs or working less, it is only a small help. Will it help the economy in Japan? There have packages before (2013, Guardian), but their effects has been limited. 

This is of course my personal point of view. Although I am no professional politician and also no (political) Journalist, I think that reacting politically is very important in this pandemic. The pandemic will cause enormous economic problems, which could also slow down our reaction to the climate crisis. A lot of people are already arguing, that we have to return to the normal economic situation and then (after a few years maybe) we can do something against the ecological crisis. But then it is too late. I am convinced that the Covid-19 crisis could also be used as chance for changing our economic system and enlarging our resilience capacity, because the climate crisis is not over. IF mankind would reform its economical system to more sustainability, which is also taking some years, the CO2 blown into the atmosphere for several years will still impact the climate for years to come. So even we act now, the challenge is very big, but this Covid-19 crisis could be a change for a change to the better. What do you think?

Zooming in

The new normal of the Corona Pandemic is Videoconferencing. While Video in the form of Youtube or Netflix has been around for a while, but is getting more important in the times of lock-down, Zoom was not very popular before the Pandemic. The Wikipedia (Wp)-Article about Zoom, which I checked as a first research step showed that the Company was founded 2011 and is a public Company (Wp) since 2019. Both is my eyes very recent, although the structures in the online business are changing very fast. But what make Zoom interesting for Applied Linguistics and Language Policy? There are several reasons:

1. Language teaching
2. Knowledge production, in different settings 
3. Research about Interaction 

Language teaching only briefly here, although language teaching is still an important part of my Job at the Chukyo University. Teaching German in Japan, which is a bit remote language in Japan, is much more efficient by using the internet. Though there are already a lot platforms for internet learning, platforms for online interaction are still in short supply. I am using Skype (Wp) for language learning (and very occasionally for teaching).
Knowledge production is maybe more related to writing (research articles or books), but speaking and spoken interaction is of course also included, that is what Seminars are (more or less) all about. The concept of a Seminar (Wp) is related various different learning cultures (as can be seen in the article), but the core concept evolved form University teaching and means an exchange of knowledge and options for advanced students and researchers. Normally Seminars are of course `offline` i.g. the participants are gathering for discussion at one place, very often an university, but also Institutions are playing an important role here. But online seminars have very important features, which are useful for teaching and research. Modern Seminars are very often an integration of conventional and digital features. Conventional features would be talking or writing on a white board. Digital features would audio or video reception. In an online Seminars all features are now digital, also the former conventional ones. There is for example are Whiteboard features in Zoom, which is of course a simulation of the conventional feature. And the whole interaction process in the seminar, which is by the way going on two channels in Zoom (but also in Skype) is now digital. The two channels are the transmission of a live video, which also can include other materials (like a text or a power point) and the chat channel of Zoom or Skype. And having the recorded features (as a Video) means all participants can see the Video once more. Only them, no other can see this, because there is a password protection for seeing the Video. This Video can`t be downloaded so easy (it is not impossible but you would need special software for this). I will give my students some time to see the Video again and after a time I will block it and only if a students wants, she or he could see the Video again. The content of the Video can also be used for further research (the same as written texts). But that means only the content not the Video in itself. For using the content, a transcription is created and then the content will be used as an anonymized text. Then parts of this text will analyzed. The same happens, with written content, where some features of the text will be analyzed.
Summing up, Zoom enables teachers (and researchers) to analyze communication more thoroughly. But also for students slower communication means more knowledge, if they are willing to invest the time to analyze their communication after the seminar.

References:
Baraldi, Claudio & Giancarlo Corsi (2017), Niklas Luhmann: Education as a social system, Springer 
Filipi, Anna & Numa Markee (2018), From research to applications, Pedagogical considerations in language alternation practices, in: Conversation Analysis and Language Alternation, Ed. by Anna Filipi & Numa Markee, John Benjamins Publishing Company  
Gardner, Rod (2013): Conversation Analysis in the Classroom, in: The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, Sidnell, Jack /Stivers, Tanya (eds), Blackwell Publishing