By Elizabeth Wulfhorst
There’s a professional television studio in the Monmouth Mall but it’s dark right now, waiting for a particularly COVID-vulnerable group of students to return once people can safely work together again.
Those students from SCAN (Social Community Activities Network), an organization that serves the 50 and older community in Monmouth and Ocean counties, are part of a class that teaches the mechanics of television production. They used to produce three television shows for SCAN-TV, working the cameras, audio equipment, editing tools and more in that efficient but compact studio. Now they, and other students like them, are embracing new technology, just like some of their grandchildren: online learning.
Classes at SCAN, which range from art to language to exercise, healthy eating and more, moved online when the pandemic shut everything down in March. Television and film instructor Robin Kampf said, “When this pandemic hit, I thought that would be, you know, the end of our TV production class, because it’s all hands on, and we’re all in a studio and control room. And you can barely get 6 feet apart from each other.” But she was able to adapt the class to an online format so it is now about learning production theory. She shares her screen with the students over Zoom and they analyze scenes from popular television shows, like Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit,” discussing how the scenes were produced, shot, lit and edited.
Kampfe said almost all her students easily pivoted to online learning.
“They’ve embraced it in such a way it amazed me,” she said.
Renee Maxwell, a retired drama teacher from Red Bank Regional High School who now lives in Tinton Falls, has been taking classes at SCAN for about eight years, including a literature class, a language class and the TV production class. She said adjusting to online learning wasn’t difficult for her. “When we’re in the studio, of course, we were actually hands on with the equipment, but Robin has shown some very good videos about the different technical aspects of a production,” Maxwell said.
While she doesn’t know how much of that will translate when they eventually return to the studio, she feels the online theory class is worthwhile.
“I think what we’re getting really is an appreciation of professional work. Everything that looks so easy really takes a great deal of planning and thought and cooperation from the different technical people – the lighting person and the sound person and the set designer and the costume designer and the music person. All of these people contribute individually to a wonderful, wonderful finished product,” Maxwell noted.
She also thinks the virtual nature her literature class has added to its appeal. “I find people speak up more on the Zoom class,” she said.
“Maybe we were intimidated or didn’t like people watching us (in person),” Maxwell said. “I think now on Zoom people feel much freer to express their opinions, which is wonderful.”
At least for the upcoming 13-week winter semester, all SCAN classes and events will remain online. In a letter to the community that accompanies the Winter Online Class and Virtual Event Schedule, Pat Bohse, executive director of SCAN, noted that they surveyed members to determine whether people were ready to resume in-person learning. According to Bohse, the response was overwhelmingly for remaining online. “Out of an abundance of caution as well as respecting your feelings and concerns, we will continue with our virtual classes and events for the Winter semester,” Bohse said in the letter.
SCAN runs three sessions a year out of the Monmouth Mall location. On March 17 when malls were shuttered at the governor’s orders, SCAN also shut down. “We took our computers and our files and all of my employees went home to work from home,” Bohse said. They were given a free Zoom account from the Grunin Foundation and quickly got up to speed. All of the classes went online, including a jazz appreciation class taught by a 92-year-old. SCAN wanted to give him a computer, but he declined the offer.
“He’s fabulous but he hates computers. So we had to hook him up via his telephone. So basically he runs his class every week but using a phone versus a computer. He plays music, he talks about the artist and he must have 25 people in his class,” said Bohse, who added that “he has a wonderful following.”
While the virtual nature of the classes actually added to SCAN’s reach – 250 people signed up for the spring/summer 2020 semester in two weeks, including 50 new members who had never attended an in-person class – the downside was the members they lost to technology. “We really learned about the digital divide,” Bohse said, “because there’s so many seniors who don’t have internet access, can’t afford it.”
She noted many who have laptops and tablets still couldn’t join the online classes because they rely on libraries and other public spaces for internet service. With those places closed, the students had no way to connect to the internet.
SCAN recently joined the New Jersey chapter of the Digital Inclusion Alliance to become a stronger advocate for seniors. Bohse said she believes “internet service is going to be the next utility that we all have to have. It shouldn’t be if you can afford it or not; everyone should have access to it.”
She calls technology a “three-legged stool” with one leg being access to technology (a computer or phone), another being access to the internet, and the third being education. When they can again meet in person, SCAN will resume its popular SAT class – Successful Aging and Technology – a 10-week course that includes free tablets for limited-income seniors. The SAT class teaches the ins and outs of using the technology, how to download and use apps, how to get music on a device, how to access hotspots and much more.
“Every senior has a coach that they can ask all those silly questions to so they don’t feel funny asking in class. It’s repetitive so they get it, so they learn it. It’s not just one shot,” she said.
Virtual classes have been so popular, Bohse said SCAN will have a dual platform – online and in-person classes – moving forward so they can reach as many people as possible.
Anyone can also stay connected with SCAN through the three half-hour shows the TV class still produces for SCAN-TV. They’ve been creating these shows for years, but now Kampfe does the editing. They use the same host and guest format and everyone jumps on the Zoom call to “shoot” the show. Kampfe takes the recorded media from the Zoom call and bring it into her editing system to add opening and closing credits and commercials. The SCAN-TV programs “Community Connections,” Caregivers First” and “Welcome to SCAN” can be seen on most cable service providers.
There is a $15 annual fee to become a SCAN member and classes range from free for one-time events to $60 for some three-month courses. Some classes are for members only but there are plenty of one-time events and classes offered for free to anyone interested. For more information visit SCAN’s website at scannj.org.
The article originally appeared in the December 17 – 23, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
