Last Friday two boys were shot at a local mall. One of them had been my student for awhile last year, and the other is currently a student at our school.
I was talking last night to one of the the current student's teachers. I asked if that student was a "face" or a "rectangle".
For those of you who have never been in a Zoom meeting: Zoom is software that allows people to meet as groups. In schools we use it for online classes. The teacher creates a meeting and sends out a link; students click on the link and are admitted to the class meeting. Like the opening of the Brady Bunch, each participant gets a rectangle; either the participant's name is shown, or if the participant has activated a web cam, the rectangle is filled with the video of the the participant (usually just their face). For a variety of reasons we cannot require students to turn on their cameras, and most choose not to, so Zoom classes can feel like talking to a wall of black rectangular bricks with names on them. When I asked if the student was a face or a rectangle, I was asking if this student ever turned on his camera.
Me: Is he a face or a rectangle?
Teacher: Rectangle.
This teacher never really got to know this student, seldom if ever saw his face. And now the opportunity to do so is gone.
Isn't it somewhat silly that the school can't make students prove they are actually "in attendance" by requiring they be on camera? I know there's been a couple of incidents where overzealous liberal teachers turned in kids for having a gun (turns out it was a paintball gun) in a room they shared with a sibling, but for the most part the excuses for not turning on the camera are bogus. As for the teachers not being able to know the students, that too is a legacy of online learning. It's also why younger students are not progressing with online learning. Students need to engage with the other students and teachers to learn from all their senses. For kids who are not visual or auditory learners, who rely on kinesthetics and situations to learn material-this is as much of a handicap as a blindfold. I'm sorry for the loss of your student. I've lost a couple over the years. Most of them were drug OD's while in college. In every case those kids were troubled before they came in the classroom and while I tried to help, it fell on deaf ears.
ReplyDeleteIf I used my home computer, which would be most convenient for me at home, I don't even have a cam to turn on. Some students don't have the bandwidth to support 1 (or, in some cases, more than 1) video stream. Some don't live in conditions they want others to see.
ReplyDeleteI understand it. I don't like it, but I cannot change it.
Our local districts have been spending untold millions supplying new laptops and hotspots to students in need. All the local libraries and rec centers have socially distanced learning pods in action for kids whose parents must work. My only question is how this situation is any different from opening up the schools. My neighbor is lead for Sped at her elementary. She's teaching hybrid and it is not working. Unless parents are there the entire time, most of the remote learners are drifting off to play games or watch videos rather than working. They do have a system where they can see when students are off task, but she has to teach those students as well as the students in her classroom. She's not a fan. In fact she's looking at retiring early. There's speculation many of the faculty over 60 will not return after Christmas break. I don't know what happens then. There's been a problem getting subs for a few years now largely b/c administrators don't back them up. I've gotten three calls asking me to sub. It's just not worth it at $80 a day.
ReplyDeleteThe bandwidth problems with streaming video both ways have already been mentioned. So have the fact that even though the enrolled students have to participate (and should be participating), other people in the same household (parents or younger children) shouldn't have to be visible to the teacher. We require our 10-year-old son to be on camera and participate in class, but we have good WiFi and a good place for him to do his schoolwork.
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