It’s come to my attention this past year that it’s possible to take college courses on computer, for full credit toward a degree, without ever walking into a classroom. Extra self-discipline is required, along with realistic time budgeting. These cybercourses provide built-in deadlines for taking the online quizzes and exams, since the student is expected to complete the course in the same timeframe as normal classroom students.
Although I’d love to hang out at my computer, pursuing advanced degrees in astronomy, psychology, environmental biology, history, philosophy, political science, medicine, law, business, theology, and nuclear waste disposal, I suspect I might delude myself and take on too much, flunking and dropping courses left and right.
This is my sixth ship contract since June 2006, and previously there was always a bunch of seminars and classes for me to attend in the first few weeks. However this time there’s no classes, no officers strutting back and forth, laying down the law.
Instead I go to a room full of computers, log in, and the info is given in “modules”, with occasional quizzes along the way to see if I’ve been paying attention. There is a final test (“assessment”) which is taken without any access to the previously presented info. One really has to learn the stuff, or at least take good notes, or else get a failing grade and have to repeat the 2-hour course. If you pass, you can print out a cute little Completion Certificate.
And I think this really works better than the old seminars and classes, which were flawed. With all due respect to the officers and their expertise, many of them were lousy teachers, with thick accents from all over the planet, dealing with English-as-a-second-language people from all over the planet, who were not likely to raise their hand saying “could you please repeat that?”
And so you miss certain points. Also you learn things, then forget them. For three years now there’s a pattern of learning, then forgetting. And then a new bunch of classes at the beginning of the next contract, so there’s a re-learning. Then a re-forgetting.
On the other hand, these ship computer courses allow one to go as slowly as necessary to retain the important stuff, cursoring back to re-read something if needed, either out of pure interest, or out of pure desire not to flunk the assessment at the end. So I know when to use a CO2 fire extinguisher, when to use a powder extinguisher, the contents of a lifeboat, three types of emergency ship doors, what to do if someone falls overboard or keels over in front of me, how to deal with passengers, the explosive danger of salon nail polish, what color barrel to throw a beer bottle in……
……ah yes, the environmental stuff. A few years ago I read a book called “Cruise Ship Blues”, in which the author describes the dumping of a kajillion tons of ship garbage into the sea every day. This book may be way out-of-date now, or Holland America would have us believe so. Holland America has to observe stringent regulations (international, national, local, and within the industry itself) for treating, burning, and dumping the incredible amount of waste that cruise ships produce. Apparently this ship is following all these environmental regulations faithfully and happily. The Veendam is the Cleandam.
There was a particularly enjoyable course - the Antarctic Treaty course, mandatory for any crew person who is part of the two Antarctic visits that are fast approaching. It is relatively new for large cruise ships to be sailing in the pristine Antarctic waters, and the Environmental powers-that-be are making sure that nothing gets disturbed down there.
The ship is not going to actually land at Antarctica, and nobody will set foot on this “Lady in White” as the course so poetically put it. The ship will only cruise the nearby waters. But they’re worried about that occasional drunken idiot - crew or passenger - who might throw something overboard, like a Slurpee cup or a Frisbee. (punishable by lethal injection)
Just before I embarked, this ship did Mexico cruises for the previous 6 weeks, using San Diego as both a depart-and-return port. On Oct 31 it said byebye to San Diego, and is heading all the way down the Pacific side of Mexico, then Central America, then South America, all the way down to Cape Horn at the Southern tip. It will then work its way up the Atlantic side with Rio de Janeiro as the last stop. The whole trip is 35 days long, with Valparaiso Chile as the halfway point. Some people got on for the whole 35 days, others are getting off at Valparaiso.
After that it’s back&forth between Valparaiso and Rio for a few months, with a couple of detours down to the Lady in White.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
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1 comment:
Hey Steve... you are really a wonderful writer. Have you thought about writing travel books in your spare time. Keep up the good work. Thanks again for a wonderful ending to a beautiful wedding... Swagette North!
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