The Los Angeles Times published a disturbing article about the problems and obstacles that students and teachers are encountering as online learning becomes the new normal. For many children, instruction is inaccessible.
The gaps between the haves and have-nots are glaring.
“ Misti Kemmer, a fourth-grade teacher at Russell Elementary School in South Los Angeles, is working hard to keep her students learning now that schools are closed. She shares detailed lesson plans on Google Drive, sends messages to families every day and delivers YouTube lectures from her home.
She’s trying to look at all this stuff on a tiny cellphone after dinner hours,” Kemmer said. “How much is a 9- year-old going to get done?”
“There’s this whole distance-learning thing, but how much learning is actually going on?” she added.
“But only three or four of her 28 students accessed their schoolwork last week, she said. Some don’t have computers and others are without internet access. One student can only open assignments on her father’s phone when he gets home from work.
“Almost all K-12 schools in California were shuttered last week. But from top state education leaders to district officials, including L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner, the message has been clear: Even though campuses are closed, learning will continue.
“While we are in very unique circumstances at this time, we are still providing education to our students,” state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said earlier this week. “School is not out, but we are finding a different way to deliver it.”
“But the reality is complicated.
“As teachers scramble to adjust to an entirely new world of education, they are coming up against significant barriers.
“There is uneven access to technology, difficulties communicating with students and parents, and uncertainty about expectations at a time when many families are suffering.
And even for educators who have long used online learning tools and whose students have easy access to them, it is challenging to rely solely on technology.
“Many teachers are grappling with this while also adapting to the tough realities of working from home.
“At Marianna Avenue Elementary School in East Los Angeles, teachers and administrators scrambled after the closure was announced March 13 to make sure every student in first through sixth grades took home a Chromebook laptop, said Estela Campos, a coordinator at the school. The school is fortunate to have enough computers for nearly every student, she said.
“But teachers are struggling to get their students online — some children had never used the computers at home and many families don’t have internet access. In some cases, children in higher grades are now having to take care of their younger siblings while their parents work and are unable to dedicate time to their own schoolwork, she said….
“Erin Fitzgerald-Haddad, a seventh-grade math teacher at the San Fernando Institute of Applied Media, a Los Angeles Unified school, has the know-how and resources to make a transition to distance learning smoother.
Fitzgerald-Haddad said teachers and students at her school were regularly using digital platforms like Schoology, an LAUSD learning management system, or Google Suites long before the closures last week.
“The school was able to send all students home with an iPad or Chromebook, though some opted out, and the school put together a YouTube channel where teachers have been posting daily videos. Faculty are also checking in with students and monitoring their work online, she said.
“Even with their expertise to quickly mobilize resources, though, Fitzgerald-Haddad has noticed differences in how students are adapting to distance learning.
“Maybe it’s different at the high school level, but [for] eighth grade and younger, I do not believe it’s reasonable to expect students to be learning on their own,” she said.
“While some students are advanced and will be able to pick up the material on their own, the Schoology platform allows her to see that some aren’t keeping up.
“The ones that really need the support, they’re the ones I’m having to make phone calls to,” she said….”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m glad public schools are being honest about how difficult this is.
Compare to the ed reform media, which is filled with fawning, credulous pieces about how charter schools are all doing excellent work immediately, with no snafus or difficulty at all:
“In a remarkable webinar, New York City’s Success Academy Charter Schools shared its plans for going virtual starting March 19. None of us has been through anything like this before, and no one can claim a solution for shuttered schools. But Success consistently delivers extraordinary levels of student proficiency. So as districts and networks struggle to find their way in a shattered world, we’re all ears.
As expected, Success CEO Eva Moskowitz seemed to slice through the moment’s confusion and indecision. Her plan combined vaulting ambition with simplicity of design.”
They have it all figured out, as usual. Well, they SAY they do anyway. Whether it’s true or not is anyone’s guess since they’re just reprinting whatever the schools claim.
Just another day in ed reform- charters are promoted with breathless cheerleading and public schools are assumed to be doing everything wrong.
https://www.the74million.org/article/wilson-how-new-york-citys-success-academy-is-creating-an-online-school-and-sharing-its-ideas-beyond-its-network/
Simplicity of design. A lot to be said for that.
Make up work packets. Send drivers around to deliver them.
Forget the online thing. It’s not going to work at all. Where kids get anything from it, that will be in VERY affluent districts.
That’s what they did in Buffalo. The teachers made up work packets for their students last Monday, but Schools ended up being closed on Tuesday when the kids were supposed to pick their work up. Teams were assembled to organize theses packets with books and tablets which the bus drivers delivered to the students. After all, they are the ones who pick up and drop off the students each day – they know where they all live.
Wise!!!
Whether or not they do the work is another topic, whether it’s paper and pencil or electronic. My guess is the better students are digging in, while those with sporadic attendance who aren’t doing as well are choosing to be on permanent vacation.
We need to forget about it, take the hit, and start over when we’re past this. It’s insane to add this grief to people’s problems right now.
If you had to had had to miss a semester of 7th grade because you were sick, it would no difference to you as an adult.
Speak for yourself.
I was out sick for a few weeks in seventh grade and that’s when I started writing goofy poems.
And to this the world owes your body of work and your gift!!!!
SomeDAM Poet got so ill
He needed play, his time to fill.
And so he started making verse.
This was a blessing, not a curse.
Really?!? We are all–and you know I mean this utterly sincerely–the richer for that few weeks of absence from your seventh-grade year.
Barking up the wrong tree
It’s not the time you spend in school
That really leaves a mark
It’s time you’re sick, that as a rule
Will make you bite and bark
Just ask Robert Louis Stevenson. Or Marcel Proust. You’re in good company.
Hopefully, one lesson towns and cities will learn form this is that they need to start providing wireless service to anyone within reach of the signal.
They could do this by charging town residents a small fraction of the cost levied by high priced cable and wireless companies and they could waive the fee for families that could not afford it.
Most Americans don’t even realize how much we are being fleeced by the telecommunications companies for something that could and should be provided to everyone.
Excellent point, SomeDAM!
Comcast and the handful of companies that are left would fight it tooth and nail, but if enough towns and cities did this along a populated corridor like the east coast, you would also not need cell phone service because it could go over the wireless network of whatever town you were closet to. I already use a free internet phone service that works fine as long as I have a wifi signal.
Everybody should have the right to free Internet. AOC will run with this in 2024.
Although I think Congress has an important role to play in ensuring that there are no regulations prohibiting towns and cities from having their own wireless systems, unlike something like universal healthcare, I think this could largely be done from the ground up –on a town by town basis.
The latter is something that must frighten companies like Comcast the most because this could happen despite all their best efforts at lobbying. It’s largely up to the individual towns and cities.
And if enough towns and cities (particularly big ones) decided to do it, Congress would be pressured to change any regulations prohibiting the practice.
Many school districts around the country are trying to do “online learning” during this.
BIG MISTAKE.
Many kids don’t have access to devices or internet connections. They certainly don’t have access to a technical support person if something goes wrong.
Almost no teachers have been trained to do this at all effectively.
Studies of distance learning show very low completion rates and much less, well, learning.
We need to take the hit, put school off until things go back to normal, and then pick up and move on from there. People have other issues to contend with right now, such as how to feed themselves and keep themselves and their kids from getting sick and maybe dying.
And if districts want to do something, they can make up packets and have drivers distribute (and meals as needed). No, setting up pickup locations won’t do. Many people do not have adequate transportation or are limited with regard to transportation because of their work. And we certainly don’t want people congregating at distribution centers.
Its really a waste of everyone’s time.
One of the things that is becoming very clear from everything that is happening is that we really need a detailed plan for how to deal with things before they happen.
One can not expect doctors, teachers and others to just throw stuff together on the fly and have it all work out.
We are also seeing that out politicians (of both major parties) are nearly ALL incompetent and simply incapable of dealing with a crisis of major proportions.
The US intelligence agencies ran a simulation of a pandemic in 2018 and concluded that the US was unprepared. Trump ignored their warnings. He doesn’t trust intelligence agencies. He has succeeded without intelligence all his life. Why change now?
Think everyone is angry/upset now? Just wait until the end of the “15 days” and the decision is made to send people back to work because “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!” – DJT tweet on 3/22/20, 8:50 PM. This could be “triage” in the starkest sense.
And guess who will be playing the role of God….
One doesn’t need Intelligence if they inherit lots of money and investments. The only thing one needs is a keen nose to sniff out the rats that want to take that money from you.
Economists are speaking with a single voice (something that rarely happens) in saying that the government needs to SEND AMERICAN FAmILIES CASH — not next week, not tomorrow and not even today but yesterday or even better last week, but both Republicans and Democrats are STILL playing games with people’s lives.
Most families simply do not have millions, thousands of even hundreds of dollars on hand to tide them over while Congress members play games.
As many many economists have pointed out, wasting precious time to decide who is ” worthy” of the cash payments is foolish and irresponsible beyond belief because it keeps the cash out of the hands of those who are in dire IMMEDIATE need and one can always get back money from the rich later on through taxes.
He has succeeded without intelligence all his life.
Yes! LOL. If you can call the wreckage he has left in his wake “success.”
SDP, I was happy to see Trump throw in with this w/n just a couple of wks of reasing this call from major economists. For once, actually listening to the experts (almost in real time)!
The wrangling in House/ Senate over strings to tie to corporate bailouts is headsplitting. Dems obviously in the right, but both sides trying to stick the tarbaby “TARP bailout” on the other guy, like pin the tail on the donkey. To mix zoological metaphors, they’re playing chicken. WHY O WHY don’t they just split it into 2 bills: cash to commonfolk now, figure out corp bailout in a few days??
Er I mean “reading” this call from major economists
Actually the food pickups seem to be going well. In the city this is done a few days a week at the community centers. I
I pick up a lunch (and breakfast) for my grandson for the days I’m his home instruction teacher (3x a week) from one of the local suburban schools (they hand a package out through a window at the loading dock area). He eats his lunch, then “school” begins (some paper and pencil, some apps, and a story). So far he’s been cooperative. I’d do more, but he loses interest after an hour/hour and a half. On the plus side, I enjoy spending quality time with him.
The lunch is actually quite nice.
They even have special lunches for those with allergies.
Awesome!!!!
GIGO…garbage in garbage out. That’s what most of this crap is. There are teachers doing some good with a limited amount of technology, but the “sites” like Khan Academy, NoRedInk etc are just garbage…..useless drill/kill worksheets delivered via a device. Most of this crap is just Common Core nonsense designed to numb the mind.
Common Core is such a bore,
Makes of learning one more chore,
Numbs the spirit, saps the will,
Makes of reading one more drill,
Kills that wondrous, precious thing,
That which makes the young heart sing.
That poem is called “No Mīrācula”
Latin, nom. sing. mīrāculum, nom. pl. mīrācula, an object of wonder.
Makes you vomit
Makes you cough
Makes you damn it
Ticks you off
What’s the point
Of Common Core
Smoke a joint
I’ll tell you more
You know the next time I vomit I’m going to think of the “What’s the point of Common Core” poem. Is it possible to vomit and laugh at the same time? Time will tell, hopefully not soon.
I do not recall what I was thinking the last time I performed the O’Rourke Opera. If you, John, can guide your thoughts during regurgitation, then you have something on many of our political leaders.
In addition to many students not having access to technology, some students do not have a parent at home that is capable of guiding any type of instruction. ELLs are at a particular disadvantage, and the irony is that many of these students require much more instruction. Most ELLs arrive not knowing English. Those from poor countries may be years behind in academics at well. Many parents of ELLs have a very limited education themselves. They depend heavily on the expertise of the schools their children attend. Vulnerable ELLs are at a particular disadvantage in a crisis of this magnitude as they have few resources and no social safety net to assist them in providing for their families.
I am having the same issues in a small district in Central California. We even loaned out laptops and found free internet. I’m working on getting things changed. We’ll see…
I am having the same issues in a small district in Central California. We even loaned out laptops and found free internet. I’m working on getting things changed. We’ll see…
Poor students are unlikely to have Wifi at home. Even with a laptop students would have to look for a hotspot. Are the public libraries open?
Public libraries are closed in my area. When life gets back to normal, that’s the first place I’m going.
“Teachers find obstacles” is not the correct way to describe what happened last week. The correct way to put it would be: LAUSD botched the rollout of distance learning. An experienced expert in the field of education would have been able to plan and implement structure, differentiated for people with a wide variety of needs. Clear expectations. That’s what teachers do. We do not have an experienced educator, though, as our superintendent; we have a businessman.
Therefore, instead of providing clear expectations, schedules, materials, and support before implementation, Superintendent Beutner forced everyone to endure a week of painful confusion and chaos. Beutner did not tell everyone to wait until a plan was in place; he did what one would expect a businessman to do: He told everyone to explore the web and seek out products to use. —He sent us shopping.— He did customer surveys. He was the consummate salesman, not the solid leader of the nation’s second largest school district we need.
This last week made LAUSD’s MiSiS Crisis look like a walk in the park. When this is over, it is of primary importance to reconsider the serious dangers of having an inexperienced businessman in the White House—I mean in LAUSD district headquarters on Beaudry Avenue.
Am one of the 8,000 teachers who went on-line here in JAX—a district of 130,000 students—today. Yep, we had the typical problems (some students still don’t have their laptops, some teachers’ learning curve is steep, most couldn’t access documents, etc.) Still…more than half of my students connected with me today. It was so heartwarming to interact—even have some of the lighthearted shenanigans via device. Am typically one to find half-empty glasses. —But not today. Now now. Many of my students were just seeking guidance and normalcy today. Parents with whom I spoke deeply appreciated my calls. I felt like…a public school teacher. —And I couldn’t be more proud.
#35yearsteachingLatin
Today we started on-line learning. My highly anxious child (who hates writing anyway) has “only” had 2 panic attacks about a 5 paragraph essay, while I try to work from home. His teachers have tried valiantly. It is not possible to hold Orchestra on-line. It is not possible to provide math instruction, it is not possible to explain in detail what is required on an essay. This is ridiculous and I foresee no end.
Ridiculous and a waste of time.
I don’t know how old your “highly anxious child” is, but I’m guessing elementary school? Why is the 5 paragraph essay being forced in elementary school?
The dreaded 5 paragraph essay = death of writing. The Common Core of writing instruction is abysmal and should be banned.
See John Warner’s book, “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five Paragraph Essay, and Other Necessities.”
The 5-para essay is hardly a creation of CCSS-ELA. This abstract
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26359255?seq=1
calls it a “form-first pedagogy” leftover of mid-19thC rhetoric. CC casts “current” [as of already 11 yrs ago] practice in concrete via aligned testing (& zero feedback loop). Just as CCSS-Math does with the ’90’s-era conceptual-style “winner” of math wars.
As to the validity of teaching the 5-para essay, I expect the devil’s in the details, e.g., at what phase in the chronology of writing instruction is it introduced, what precedes it, how much and for how long is it used, is it presented as a choice among others, suitable better to some applications than others, etc. There’s a lively discussion in the comments at this article: https://m.slashdot.org/story/350034
The 5-para essay showed up in midsch [late ’90’s] for my kids. It was not over-used; it was one piece of a many-part K thro 12 writing program devpd by distr teachers. But that’s unusual, & our distr is known in the area for turning out good writers. Using it excessively/ exclusively sounds like a 1-note melody reflecting minimal time devoted to writing, whether a function of teaching to test, or too-big classes, or both.
It is the structure used for SAT ACT AP testing. It is test prep! Not much creative writing or journal writing in public schools anymore unless a really good ELA teacher decides that it’s worthwhile. It’s really sad that most students can’t construct a meaningful piece of writing that reflects their thoughts and opinions.
Online learning will never work. I dare to write this, knowing full well that some people will quote “never say never”. But teaching is a very much human relationship, and my statement will be as valid 10 years from now as now—unless humanity is replaced by machines by then.
We are finding this out big time even in higher ed, since now almost all colleges go online for the rest of the semester.
Normally, you prepare for your class, you walk into the classroom, pumped up about seeing and talking to the students, and start teaching in the usual elevated mood and energy level. For an online class? You need to click here, login, then click here, login again, then click continuously to let kids talk or to see their faces (you cannot see on one screen if you have more than 10 students). You then adjust the focus of the camera, you give advice to kids to turn on the volume on their mic, turn their video on, then turn it off when transmission slows down too much. And despite all this busy work, you basically listen to your own voice for 55 minutes. There is no “please go to the board, and show us your solution”.
Then you make literally hundreds of arrangements for students’ assignments: where they submit it, how you see it, open and close chat windows, other windows pop up notifying you about some important stuff, put and search for files all over the “helpful” teaching and learning software environment.
I wrote up a webpage for my faculty just how start giving a lecture via Zoom. This is barely 10% of what needs to be done for online teaching.
http://wd369.csi.hu/apu/zooming.html
All your time is occupied with navigating online teaching software. Clicking and keyboard work over content. What a disaster.
Much of online learning software are preoccupied with security to ensure the sudent’s identity, that they don’t cheat on their test. Multidigit numbers are generated continuously to try to connect submitted work and response to the individual. Efforts, which are done in a fraction of a second by your eyeballs as you look at the student.
And while all these software claim to be more secure than Alcatraz, they crash, freeze, lose files, misidentify students all the time.
Alcatraz is a good metaphor for the whole online learning thing.
Once in, no one ever escapes (except Clint Eastwood, of course)
Educators and educatees are sentenced to the high security online prison. I am in an empty room, talking to a camera, pretending, I am teaching. It’s Alcatraz uploaded to Matrix.
Zoom is a piece of junk, in my opinion. Very unnatural and highly distracting. I don’t understand why so many colleges and universities are using it.
What should we use?
But it is nice for a family chat across the nation! My BIL helped set it up for his parents so that they can chat with our immediate family spread across country. The only problems so far….didn’t work well on their phone so one switched to a computer and the other was still on the phone…..if they got too close to each other there was static and glitching. Once the phone was disconnected and both were in front of a computer screen, it was a much nicer experience.
Probably because it’s integrated with Canvas, our “Learning Management System.” I don’t like it at all. Horrible for discussion or spontaneity.
As an LAUSD teacher in East Los Angeles, Distance learning has been quite the experience, and though there were several challenges at the beginning, my 5th grade students were familiar with G-Suites, specifically Goole Classroom embedded in Schoology. We are a one-to-one school, and even though our iPads are 5 years old we were able to continue learning using several strategies, including Watch, Read, Do. Edpuzzle, Kahoot, and Mystery Science kept my students invested and engaged. We met through Zoom in whole groups, small groups of 6 and utilized the breakout rooms for working on various topics. I did have two students out of 24 who never participated, despite calls, emails, and texts.
I enrolled and am in LAUSD’s Future Ready Certification program, which concludes next week. This online training has been time consuming but very useful in providing me with tools, technology and resources that are available for planning online engaging lessons. I felt empowered to develop a pIan of action, taking that plan into action the last week of teaching. feel that I am able to take my talent and skill as a teacher and apply this to distance learning.
II can honestly say that I didn’t see taking my learning online to be horrible, or a disaster, but rather a challenge to master. Mindset is something that I teach in my class, and something I had to rely on in March.