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While scientists race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is urging everyone to get a flu shot.

Texans need to do their part to keep moving forward the state’s recovery from the pan-demic, the governor said. Last week, he also eased restrictions placed on businesses in most of Texas.

In a new public ser-vice announcement, Abbott reminded Tex-ans that flu season already has arrived. Getting a flu shot is es-pecially important this season to help keep hospitalizations down during the state’s ongo-ing response to COVID-19, he said.

Open your heart to musicAs Hispanic Heritage Month

events happen across Texas, a new book encourages people to cele-brate in song.

Corazón Abierto: Mexican American Voices in Texas Music is set to be pub-lished Nov. 15 by Texas A&M Uni-versity Press. The author is Kath-leen Hudson, founding director of the Texas Music Heritage Founda-tion in Kerrville.

“By sharing the artists’ accounts of their influences, their experienc-es, their family stories and their mu-sical and cultural journeys, Corazón Abierto reminds us that borders can be gateways, that differences enrich, rather than isolate,” Texas A&M notes in promotional material for Corazón Abierto, which translates in English as “open heart.”

Ike Dike moves forwardAs Hurricane Sally hammered

nearby states, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn touted in a news release the progress of a massive flood miti-gation project along Texas’ Gulf Coast.

The Sabine Pass to Galveston

Bay project, sometimes referred to as the Ike Dike, is intended to pro-tect nearly 4,000 square miles from Brazoria County to Orange County. Last month, Orange County voted to move into the design phase with

the Army Corps of Engineers. After a design study is com-pleted in April, the project will be sub-mitted to Congress for authorization and funding.

The Corps also is conducting a Coastal Texas Study with the Texas General Land Office to provide a comprehensive strat-egy for flood mitiga-tion and coastal pro-

tection beyond Houston.“The question isn’t if that next

bullet will come, but when and how ready we will be.” Cornyn said. “With these projects, Texas will be stronger, safer and better prepared for whatever Mother Nature sends our way.”

Cornyn’s Democratic challenger in the Nov. 3 election, MJ Hegar, responded to the statement, saying Texas is being pummeled by the ef-fects of climate change.

“We’ve had over a decade to act on the Ike Dike, but under Sen. Cornyn’s watch it still hasn’t mate-rialized — perhaps because just six years ago he didn’t even know what the Ike Dike was,” Hegar said. “We need bold investments in both ener-gy and infrastructure, including but not limited to the Ike Dike, to help Texans on the front lines of worsen-ing natural disasters and holistically address the climate crisis — some-thing Sen. Cornyn has repeatedly failed Texans on.”

Chris Cobler is a board member and past president of the Freedom of Infor-mation Foundation of Texas. He wel-comes email at ccobler@texaspress.com.

With October upon us, it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

I say that because Octo-ber bears the best outdoor activities during the fall sea-son. Sure, temperatures will spike into the 90s, or higher at some points throughout the rest of our lives during any season; however, Octo-ber is my favorite month of the year.

I no longer bow hunt white-tail deer, but October kicks off the start to archery season.

With a couple of weeks into the South Zone dove season, hunters can still fill their freezers with the delec-table birds, all the while fine tuning hunting areas lead-ing up to the general white-tail deer season.

And I haven’t even men-tioned the fall transition bite for largemouth black bass.

Bass heavily feed on bait-fish as water temperatures decrease with the days be-coming shorter.

As a river angler, this time of year is hard to find a good run to paddle due to the tail-end of tropical de-pressions from the coast.

Nevertheless, all of the

factors above motivate me to spend more time out-doors.

Perhaps some of those that actually read my col-umn may think, “Chris, you sure write a lot about the outdoors.”

Well, yes, that part is true. Yet I write about my passion for the outdoors to help inspire others to do the same.

Especially if you take a child with you for the first time.

Living in the city, I of-ten feel bad about my kids asking to go camping on a Thursday night after watching a commercial for something outdoor related. I know I can’t just pick up everything on a weeknight and take them camping or even the same as often on

the weekends.But, for my oldest daugh-

ter Tahlia, I know I’m mak-ing an impression when she tells me stories with her classmates.

When she tells me how many times she’s been camping/hunting/fishing more than others, I feel bet-ter.

But, it’s not a competi-tion with me as if I’m doing better than other parents be-cause everyone is different.

I have always felt better breathing fresh air, smell-ing the flowers, hearing the birds chirp, listening to the rapids crash against the rocks, along with many more experiences from be-ing outside.

And October is the month to do all of those things with family and friends.

HABITS OF A WRITER

By Chris FiloteoEditor

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

Get your flu shot, governor says

One of our greatest con-cerns moving to a quar-antined environment was maintaining student en-gagement. As any veteran teacher can tell you, student engagement is critical to the learning process. Effective teachers typically convey their knowledge by directly interacting with their stu-dents and involving them in the learning process. This invokes images of the great Confucius, Socrates and my personal favorite, Dewey Finn.

Pre-pandemic, we com-monly employed two basic forms of instruction: face-to-face and internet. Face-to-face instruction is your classic in-person presenta-tion of information and ideally involves a high de-gree of student interaction. This mode of instruction is typically structured with scheduled class times and a “stand up and deliver” approach. Internet courses, on the other hand, typically do not have defined meeting times and are more conve-nient than face-to-face of-ferings. They are accessible world-wide, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Inter-net courses are also easily enhanced with embedded audio and video and can be effective as well; however, they do not typically pro-vide the same level of en-gagement as a face-to-face class and generally provide a lower degree of student-teacher interaction.

So, at CBC, our over-riding challenge was to develop effective and en-gaging instructional strate-gies while avoiding direct person-to-person contact. The logical approach was to hybridize our courses—to incorporate the structure and engagement of a face-to-face format with the degree of separation and convenience of an internet course. This resulted in not only a new approach but also new terminology: syn-

chronized virtual instruc-tion.

With this instructional ap-proach, we deliver content through video conferenc-ing during a scheduled time frame. The instructor and student log on to an online classroom through a video conferencing application, such as Zoom or Lifesize, where they can freely inter-act during the meeting time. This allows the student to learn in an enhanced en-vironment where they feel secure.

All courses are also housed within a Learn-ing Management System (LMS) to allow the instruc-tor to embed supplemental materials. Our LMS allows us to create a “shell” for ev-ery course that can house not only course content but also links to student support services and other resourc-es. The student also has

24-hour access to an online tutor through the real-time TutorMe Instant Online Tutoring application linked to every course shell.

So, what happens if the student misses the sched-uled meeting time? Not a problem. Instructors record their lectures and ware-house them in the course shell so students can access them at their convenience. In addition, all instruc-tors maintain virtual office hours and can meet the student in their online class-room.

These unique times have undoubtedly brought new challenges to the edu-cational landscape, but with our commitment to student success, these challenges are being turned into opportuni-ties.

Stay safe and keep learning and growing.

Student engagement is critical to the learning process

THE DEAN’S CORNERMark SecordDean of Transfer & General Education