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School districts take unplanned plunge into online learning

bostonherald.com

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Re: School districts take unplanned plunge into online learning

#61

Post by jimbokun »

donw wrote: post #60
irrational wrote: post #8

In my school district they still haven't figured out how to proceed. The problem is there are a lot of low income families that they know don't have internet access or a computer. They can give those kids a chromebook, but that isn't very helpful with no internet access. Legally (and morally) they can't move ahead with online school if a big chunk of the students are left out. On the other hand, I was talking yesterd…

I’m going to expose my ignorance here, but in 2020, how many low-income families are there without internet? Also, would it the solve not just be to provide loaner 4G access points to those families? The US is one of the top per-student global spenders on K-12 education, so the money is there.

> Also, would it the solve not just be to provide loaner 4G access points to those families?

It probably would, but I don't think most school districts planned for a multi-week or multi-month pandemic. So buying access points and Chromebooks, finding all the students who need them, and distributing them, probably won't happen in the short term.

Re: School districts take unplanned plunge into online learning

#62

Post by thescriptkiddie »

donw wrote: post #60
irrational wrote: post #8

In my school district they still haven't figured out how to proceed. The problem is there are a lot of low income families that they know don't have internet access or a computer. They can give those kids a chromebook, but that isn't very helpful with no internet access. Legally (and morally) they can't move ahead with online school if a big chunk of the students are left out. On the other hand, I was talking yesterd…

I’m going to expose my ignorance here, but in 2020, how many low-income families are there without internet? Also, would it the solve not just be to provide loaner 4G access points to those families? The US is one of the top per-student global spenders on K-12 education, so the money is there.

In California, at least, students are eligible for subsidized ($20/month) LTE hotspots. Apparently it is provided by Sprint as part of an agreement they made when they leased spectrum that had previously been set aside for educational use. These could and should been made free for low-income families.

https://foundationccc.org/What-We-Do/Student-Success/Califor...

Re: School districts take unplanned plunge into online learning

#63

Post by lucidguppy »

donw wrote: post #60
irrational wrote: post #8

In my school district they still haven't figured out how to proceed. The problem is there are a lot of low income families that they know don't have internet access or a computer. They can give those kids a chromebook, but that isn't very helpful with no internet access. Legally (and morally) they can't move ahead with online school if a big chunk of the students are left out. On the other hand, I was talking yesterd…

I’m going to expose my ignorance here, but in 2020, how many low-income families are there without internet? Also, would it the solve not just be to provide loaner 4G access points to those families? The US is one of the top per-student global spenders on K-12 education, so the money is there.

When things are cleared up with covid - just go to the library and see all the seniors who have next to nothing, then think - how many of them have a grandchild in their care?

Re: School districts take unplanned plunge into online learning

#64

Post by kedean »

irrational wrote: post #8

In my school district they still haven't figured out how to proceed. The problem is there are a lot of low income families that they know don't have internet access or a computer. They can give those kids a chromebook, but that isn't very helpful with no internet access. Legally (and morally) they can't move ahead with online school if a big chunk of the students are left out. On the other hand, I was talking yesterd…

> On the other hand, I was talking yesterday with a family member in another state where they have been doing online school almost since the first day

It's highly likely they aren't supposed to doing that. A lot of school districts around me decided to go their own way when the state didn't give specific directions after shutting every school down, mainly really rural ones interestingly enough. They are now having to back-peddle as the state steps in and exerts their authority over the districts. Similarly, in districts that simply postponed everything indefinitely (as they were supposed to), there were a number of individual teachers who tried to immediately start doing remote instruction with their kids and were quickly reprimanded by their district as soon as they were found out.

The reason is of course education equality. The state wants to make sure that every student is accounted for first. My wife is acutely aware of it since she has a non-zero number of students that lack home internet access. Students who many people would like to disregard in favor of the vast majority who do.

I feel like both sides are valid though...you can't simply not educate 99% of students because of the problems of the other 1%, but at the same time you need to make sure that 1% is able to get access too, because every child does matter.

Re: School districts take unplanned plunge into online learning

#65

Post by agentdrtran »

donw wrote: post #60
irrational wrote: post #8

In my school district they still haven't figured out how to proceed. The problem is there are a lot of low income families that they know don't have internet access or a computer. They can give those kids a chromebook, but that isn't very helpful with no internet access. Legally (and morally) they can't move ahead with online school if a big chunk of the students are left out. On the other hand, I was talking yesterd…

I’m going to expose my ignorance here, but in 2020, how many low-income families are there without internet? Also, would it the solve not just be to provide loaner 4G access points to those families? The US is one of the top per-student global spenders on K-12 education, so the money is there.

Quite a few - CA has over 1.1 million homes without internet access (this means no mobile internet as well): https://connectednation.org/blog/2019/10/09/new-u-s-census-f...

Re: School districts take unplanned plunge into online learning

#66

Post by trentnix »

When I was in high school (mid-90s in a rural area), we had teachers via live satellite (the TI-IN network out of San Antonio) for those subjects with few interested students or no qualified staff resources.

https://books.google.com/books?id=HGVQDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT234&ots...

We would connect via phone and participate in classroom activities with the teacher and other students on a rotating schedule. It was all lecture and interactive learning for the duration of the daily broadcast. The teachers were good. The production was high quality (for the time). And I can only imagine they did it on a shoestring budget.

This video is a perfect example of both the production quality and is filled with examples of the type of rural districts it served: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx0L5_wu9J8

That said, my experience was that it simply couldn't match the value of being in a classroom with a demanding teacher. The social expectation provided by an engaged teacher and the ability to directly measure my performance against my peers was critical. And that experience has made me generally skeptical of those who present distance learning as some sort of educational panacea.

Schools have long noted that parental involvement is the biggest indicator of which students will struggle and which students will succeed. Given the current circumstance where parents are expected to shoulder a larger burden in making sure kids are engaged and learning, the gap between successful students and unsuccessful students will likely increase.

Re: School districts take unplanned plunge into online learning

#67

Post by donw »

lucidguppy wrote: post #63
donw wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m going to expose my ignorance here, but in 2020, how many low-income families are there without internet? Also, would it the solve not just be to provide loaner 4G access points to those families? The US is one of the top per-student global spenders on K-12 education, so the money is there.

When things are cleared up with covid - just go to the library and see all the seniors who have next to nothing, then think - how many of them have a grandchild in their care?

How many do? Do we have data? And what benefits are currently available to them?

Re: School districts take unplanned plunge into online learning

#68

Post by dr_dshiv »

kedean wrote: post #64
irrational wrote: post #8

In my school district they still haven't figured out how to proceed. The problem is there are a lot of low income families that they know don't have internet access or a computer. They can give those kids a chromebook, but that isn't very helpful with no internet access. Legally (and morally) they can't move ahead with online school if a big chunk of the students are left out. On the other hand, I was talking yesterd…

> On the other hand, I was talking yesterday with a family member in another state where they have been doing online school almost since the first day It's highly likely they aren't supposed to doing that. A lot of school districts around me decided to go their own way when the state didn't give specific directions after shutting every school down, mainly really rural ones interestingly enough. They are now having to…

> there were a number of individual teachers who tried to immediately start doing remote instruction with their kids and were quickly reprimanded by their district as soon as they were found out.

That sounds very odd.

Re: School districts take unplanned plunge into online learning

#69

Post by donw »

agentdrtran wrote: post #65
donw wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m going to expose my ignorance here, but in 2020, how many low-income families are there without internet? Also, would it the solve not just be to provide loaner 4G access points to those families? The US is one of the top per-student global spenders on K-12 education, so the money is there.

Quite a few - CA has over 1.1 million homes without internet access (this means no mobile internet as well): https://connectednation.org/blog/2019/10/09/new-u-s-census-f...

I’d be interested to see how that breaks down in terms of household sizes, location, etc. Is this a rural problem? Urban? Are those households primarily childless, or with school-aged children?

Re: School districts take unplanned plunge into online learning

#70

Post by testfoobar »

Serious question: will schools and universities reopen in the fall?

A large university with dormitories is kind of like a cruise ship on land: everyone eats, sleeps, plays and works together.

Elementary and High schools are somewhat better in that kids go their own homes at night. But they still eat, play and study together. Hallways of high schools between classes see lots of cross-campus shoulder-to-shoulder traffic as kids rush from one class to the other.

What are the odds that schools and universities open at all in August/September? Will they shutter for a full year? Will there be tuition discounts?

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