Teaching during the pandemic, no problem!
Distance education during the pandemic was a challenge for every state, school district, school, administrator, and teacher. This was not just an Alabama issue. "Educational institutions began providing most of their services online, including lecturers and different assessments via several platforms for over 60% of students around the world due to global restriction measures to minimize the spread of COVID-19" (Alqahtani & Rajkhan, 2020, p. 216). Students had challenges concerning the instantaneous usage of digital devices and access to the internet, but what can we say about a year in the trenches with COVID19. Regrettably, most school districts were not ready for digital implementation on a massive scale, but how could anybody be ready? Perhaps we are glossing over a few fine points that should not be overlooked.
Really, we should have been ready.
You know, it is almost like somebody or something told us to be ready for distance learning years ago. Oh wait, I remember, it was the Alabama State Department of Education back in 2015. The State Superintendent of Education sent a memorandum throughout Alabama stating, "Act 2015-89 requires each local education agency (LEA) to adopt a policy providing at a minimum, a virtual education option for eligible students in Grades 9-12 before the 2016-2017 school year" (Bice, 2015, para. 1). Don't you just hate it when someone tries to help, but you just don't listen. Enough finger-pointing, I'll move on.
Let's start with jumping into the abyss.
Errors were being made on multiple levels of the educational hierarchy. We must look at everything during COVID19 and systematically evaluate our decisions. Why evaluate, you may ask? The "evaluation of programs is used to identify strengths and weaknesses as well as the benefits and drawbacks of teaching and learning online" (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 307). What about the decision to utilize SchoolsPLP? SchoolsPLP "was awarded a $12.458 million contract by the state earlier this month to fulfill the task of providing a “digital curriculum” option for schools" (Moon, 2020, para. 2). This was a great idea until we found out "SchoolsPLP’s claims of accreditation on their website — by Cognia, AdvancED, California A-G and the NCAA — all appear to be bogus" (Moon, 2020, para. 4). If you want to read the article, click this hyperlink. Let us just hope there will be a far greater investigation of new platforms for digital curriculums in the future.
An infographic for the evaluation of distance education.
One of the tasks I had as an educator was getting a copy of our district's digital text licensure agreement. My greatest fear was using digital text illegally. I was fortunate to have peers in my district that share my concerns. All I had to do was ask the right person. Please don't get me wrong, I use all forms of multimedia in my classroom, but I would not have used the text without this license. There are considerations for copyrighted material usage by educators via the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act, but "appropriating the property of someone else—even for a noble cause—is wrong. If, as educators, we hope to model the behaviors we would like to see in our students, respecting the value of others’ work is an excellent place to begin" (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 277). I realize students sometimes do not give proper citations of another's intellectual property, but educators must be held to a higher standard.
Please be a good example for your distance learning program.
I realize I have spoken quite a bit about the negatives of distance education during the pandemic, but there are also countless positives. The educators within my district, administrative staff, technology coordinators, and our networking staff combined. Everyone assembled as a team to make the best of a horrible situation. The district allocated government funding to purchase digital devices while the I.T. staff ensured our network could support the coming workload. Purchasing bandwidth for the district network to support educators using multimedia applications was one obstacle The I.T. department defeated quickly. Also, my school district already possessed board-approved written student policies governing the use of digital devices and appropriate digital citizenship behavior. It is understandable considering "virtually every educational organization maintains policies governing who can use institutional technologies, how they can be used, and the rights and responsibilities that accompany this access" (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 288). These actions and policies may seem of little consequence to some, but when confronted with the task of virtual learning for an entire district, every advantage is a blessing.
It is shaky, but we are attempting to cross the digital divide.
No one wants to deal with another COVID19 scenario, but the digital divide across Alabama is getting smaller. No matter what educators plan/create for distance education, there is one critical issue with distance education regarding students. Students entering distance education must "build their own attitude and commitment, and find ways to self-motivate in order to gain successful learning outcomes" (Alqahtani & Rajkhan, 2020, p. 13). Regrettably, many students are not ready or do not have the maturity level to accept the responsibility necessary for distance education. In time, students will develop these skills, and with so much technology now available, repetitive digital device use may spawn responsible behaviors students need to succeed. Only time will tell, but the future looks bright.
References
Bice, T. R. (2015, December). Virtual Schools (and Programs). Alabama State Department of Education. https://www.alsde.edu/ofc/cs/Virtual%20Schools/FY16-2023.pdf.
Giphy. Ball Juggling. https://media.giphy.com/media/BvjoYFizIt5yU/giphy.gif
Giphy. I Won't. https://media.giphy.com/media/L4HW0QeHJYUt9l7I2o/giphy.gif
Giphy. Jump parachute cave. https://giphy.com/gifs/jump-parachute-cave-8UYMQ5MCmuqXu
Giphy. Stephen Colbert Oops. https://media.giphy.com/media/zI2xxBtbAig6Y/giphy.gif
Alqahtani, A. Y., & Rajkhan, A. A. (2020). E-Learning Critical Success Factors during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comprehensive Analysis of E-Learning Managerial Perspectives. Education Sciences, 10.
Moon, J. (2020, July 27). ALSDE: Accreditation issues with virtual school provider won't affect Alabama delivery. Alabama Political Reporter. https://www.alreporter.com/2020/07/27/alsde-accreditation-issues-with-virtual-school-provider-wont-affect-alabama-delivery/.
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S. E., & Zvacek, S. (2019). Teaching and learning at a distance: foundations of distance education. Information Age Publishing, Inc
Darren,
ReplyDeleteWould you believe that my infographic was first titled, “Crisis Schooling: Making Lemonade from Lemons”? I guess it seems like an appropriate fit for distance education in the time of COVID! It’s funny that you mention about the requirement of virtual schooling for high schoolers before the 2016-2017 school year. I believe that’s when ACCESS came into play. I found your article about SchoolsPLP very interesting. How was it that that program was not more thoroughly vetted? Frazier and Hearrington (2017) discussed the importance of data-driven decision making. According to the article you linked, there wasn’t much data at all. Simonson et al. (2019) talked about evaluating programs using quality reports, which may have been helpful when SchoolsPLP was on the table.
References:
Frazier, M. & Hearrington, D. (2017). The technology coordinator’s handbook (3rd ed.). International Society for Technology in Education.
Simonson, M., Zvacek, S. & Smaldino, S. (2019). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (7th ed.). Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Hi Darren,
ReplyDeleteI agree that as a nation we should have been more prepared to quickly switch to remote learning if necessary. The Learning Continuity Guidebook found on the ClassLink blog website states how school systems such as Mobile County Public Schools and DeForest School District are offering virtual professional development and other resources for teachers allowing them to learn at their own pace. That way there is not the issue of teachers having no experience with teaching remotely. Deforest School District developed a virtual learning team and offers virtual learning plans as well. I think it’s a great idea to incorporate remote learning into every curriculum so that students and teachers aren’t completely lost if there is ever the need to shift completely to virtual learning. The continuity guidebook also mentions that Lindsay Unified School district has been teaching students using a self-paced approach to learning and giving them remote learning experience.
Jasmine Densmore
ClassLink Blog: Learning Continuity Guidebook: Implement Remote Learning. ClassLink. (n.d.). https://www.classlink.com/blog/learning-continuity-guidebook-part8.
Darren,
ReplyDeleteI think you brought up some really interesting points about being prepared for distance learning. I have had some of the same thoughts, especially after researching some of these same items you mentioned. As a high school government teacher, I have to play devil’s advocate a lot even when I agree with someone. I think I should mention that having virtual school options for students and having teachers ready to teach all of their students virtually are not the same. As Simonson (2019) suggests, “Distance education courses should be carefully designed and developed before instruction begins” (p. 8). The vast majority of teachers around the country went into the 2019-2020 school year preparing for face to face instruction. Doersch and Jackson (2020) list “Establish Equity and Access” (para. 5) as their second step for distance education. While schools needed a plan for virtual school, there is no way they could have known that they needed to use valuable resources to create a plan for students to have access to both devices and internet. Perhaps a better argument for why we should have been ready is that research has shown that online learning works, and that there are many ways to enhance learning through technology. Going forward, hopefully schools will be better prepared for school interruptions.
References
Doersch, D., & Jackson, F. (n.d.). ClassLink Blog: Learning Continuity Guidebook: Start With Your Vision & Goals. ClassLink. https://www.classlink.com/blog/learning-continuity-guidebook-part1.
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S. E., & Zvacek, S. (2019). Teaching and learning at a distance: foundations of distance education. Information Age Publishing, Inc.