Distance Education

Yesterday we got word from our district that it's very unlikely that we will go back to school after spring break (April 13th was the plan).  They're planning some committees to try to get us to some form of virtual learning or distance education.  My school's administration is going in to work Monday to gather all our Chromebooks in one location, ostensibly so they can subsequently issue them to students who don't have computers.  Our district is looking into getting internet access for those students who don't already have it.

I've really enjoyed this article about distance learning (and how it is different from online learning).  There are plenty of "online meeting" software packages out there--yesterday we held a virtual happy hour on one of them!--and we teachers will no doubt have training available on how to use them.  That's probably the best that can be expected under the circumstances--after all, all of the planning and implementation will be done on the fly.

I have two concerns that need to be addressed.  First, do I need such training?  To be honest, I can talk all day, but if I can't simultaneously write and explain what I'm doing, no teaching is taking place.  There are plenty of math videos out there, many of them excellent, that people have already created.  I don't see how I'm going to improve upon that wheel!  I've already looked at the material I've planned to teach through the end of the year and Khan Academy covers it all.  One or two videos per topic, in addition to the online component of our textbooks, and that's really the best I can do.  After than, it's probably better for students just to ask me questions via email, Skype, or one of those meeting packages.

Second, there are ADA considerations.  A year or so ago all our district's teachers had to undergo training in making our web sites accessible to people with disabilities.  I don't know how blind people access the information on my web site, I'm trusting that my school district has taken care of that for me.  But what about videos I link to, are they closed-captioned for the hard-of-hearing?  Khan Academy is!

If you think I'm being silly, I assure you I'm not.  We underwent that training in response to lawsuits up and down California, so it's a real concern.  Until the ADA gets thrown out the window due to coronavirus considerations--and I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen--it's real.  In fact, just 4 days ago the US Department of Education published a press release pertaining to the civil rights of students under the ADA.

There are a lot of balls for my district administrators to juggle right now.