As the novel coronavirus lays siege to our colleges, universities, and K-12 schools, the last day of the school year may have already passed, denying students the celebratory chant: “No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks.” Ah, yes, so school administrators now must regroup and offer stopgap measures, mostly online services and formats. Across our state, educators scramble to mount coursework on appropriate platforms. Practicing physical distancing, teachers, professors, and administrators must adjust to the challenge: to entice students to learn while everyone stays home. How does one build a new multi-layered education system in a few weeks? How does one right the world once it has been tipped upside down?
Having conducted college distance learning courses when curricula were delivered by public television, tape recordings, and workbooks, I realized long ago that formal education need not involve brick and mortar classrooms. Back then, students snail-mailed their completed modules or delivered them in person. Eventually, distance learning became indispensable and has been growing ever since. As computers became ubiquitous, online classes provided attractive substitutions for real classrooms. With fewer in-person obligations, a student could “attend” class in a park, a coffee shop, a library, a ferry, a comfy sofa at home, anywhere a laptop could connect to the internet. The notion of going to school changed because school could go wherever a student chose to go. Recent closures, however, have caused knotty problems.
Preparing material for an online course takes an uncommon portion of time and effort. Software and hardware issues present themselves when creating an effective course. Even though programs such as Zoom and Skype offer video conferencing and communications, not all students have the tech savvy and appropriate devices to fully participate. Nor do all faculty. Again, big disadvantages fall on marginal students, especially those who cannot afford suitable hardware. Left behind entirely are those unmotivated and the less proficient students who need added attention. Special needs students and English as a second language students will likely find themselves detached from educational resources altogether.
Despite research that demonstrates virtual classrooms do not prepare students as well as brick and mortar classrooms do, what little education schools now offer is mostly online. What other choices are possible? A few remarkable teachers will reach out to students in other ways (FaceTime, group chats, phone calls, worksheet packets, and so on), but for learners in low income groups and for the millions of otherwise disadvantaged students, closing our schools effectively means school is dark for this academic year.
For those fortunate enough to have online classes available, chatting with your teacher and peers via an iPad or tablet is unlike engaging people in a real classroom. Lack of social interaction and distractions incumbent with taking a class online can easily defeat an indifferent learner. And let’s face it, if a student is on his or her own, obediently attending a virtual classroom takes extraordinary initiative.
K-12 schools especially are left to mount an infrastructure required for comprehensive remote learning? Too much to ask? Sure, the horribleness will eventually end, and a boost for everyone will come when students can walk the corridors of real schools with real smiling teachers in real classrooms, when all of us can breathe deeply and touch one another.