Question about online learning

[stillmovingforward]

As so not to derail another thread but i'm really curious, why am I hearing about all the different platforms that education is using for teaching? Why wouldn't a district decide on one to use? Or am I missing something here?

Please remember, I don't have kids in school anymore (they are in college) and i'm not trying to be difficult to teachers (my dad was one) but i'm a lean specialist and this question keeps going around in my head. It seems like all the different platforms being used are difficult for teachers and parents to navigate and yet the professional world is doing ok. Or maybe just the professional world I live in is ok and others are struggling like the schools are?

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

There's a difference between an online curriculum and teaching online. 
I can teach a group of students with curriculum I design and/or use from books. 
I can set up all the stuff I'd do in my classroom to be on video and then post the same exact assignments that I'd use in class on a site that is only available to my students. That's teaching online. 

Online curriculum is a full program developed by a for-profit company that has every single learning tool, assignment, and test built in. The teacher doesn't have to create thing "to teach". The teacher helps the kids through the program. 


So, you have a bunch of "normal" schools that don't have a full online curriculum that are trying to teach online. If I have one online supplement (helping) program that works with my regular social studies text books, and one math practice online program that is a completely different program, and I throw in some Kahn academy videos for my students to watch about grammar, that'f four sites the students have to go to. Those three sites are all stored on a fourth site for the kids to access.

The "normal" schools don't have the money to go buy the full programs. That's not the point of "normal" school. And we're hoping to go back to some version of normal. The kids use all of this stuff in the classroom. It's just that routines built in and teachers are there in person to help. At home, the kids aren't in a "school" setting and the parents don't realize the complexity of what happens in a classroom. 


What questions does that explanation bring up that I can answer? 

[stillmovingforward]

So are the schools teaching online or trying to have online curriculum?
I would have thought it would be 'teaching online' (not the for profit online schooling) with links in the teachers' daily course plan to allow the students to flip between the necessary sites.

Good heavens, I really hope my question makes sense! And that I don't sound antagonistic because I don't mean to be. But I'll acknowledge this is a touchy subject. I'm just trying to figure this out.

For the record, I think public school gets a bad rap and is underfunded.

[Lizard Queen]

The professional world didn't change all that much. In my job, there are several different platforms used, but people were using them all along mostly. Our billing system is so complex, I still can't really tell you how it all works. Then there's payroll, which is separate, and the accounting program, the inventory program which is separate, and I'm sure engineering uses a variety of different programs, and there is Microsoft as a support program, webex, jabber, zoom. Its a lot.

[stillmovingforward]

Yes, but for video conferencing or meetings, which is how I envision teaching to be, is where the rub seems to be.

[giramomma]

What tools just depends on the need.  I'm guessing our school changed platforms over the summer for some of the kids because of financial pressures. In order to make our school "safe" enough to reopen...they had to hire a bunch more staff/warm bodies to be with the kids. Money had to be cut from other places.

The kids are using Google Classroom as the container/organizer of all their work.. But, Google classroom doesn't have an online spelling program. So, that's another web site the kids have to use. Google classroom doesn't offer software for practicing typing, Different website for that. The peanut is has computers, and they are focusing on internet safety. So, it's off to the FBI web site for that.

Each website has it's own function. Some jobs have specific tools. Say you wanted to create a really slick recorded presentation. Office 365 only goes so far. If you want to edit your recording, you probably need to go out and find a different product that allows you to edit recordings/mp4s. It's sort of the same thing with education.

In Spring, Zoom wasn't secure enough of a tool. Didn't find that out, until everyone was using it for class this spring. So, then teachers switched to WebEx.

The software programs also might change contracts with districts, which means, districts might need to change what they use.

We're seeing that at the University I work at. We have an enterprise version of Box for managing digital assets. Up until this past spring, we had unlimited storage. In June, storage limits were enforced, but we didn't know exactly how that is going to work. So, now we are pivoting to other tools in addition to Box.

[giramomma]

Sept 23, 2020 22:33:07 GMT -5 stillmovingforward said:

I would have thought it would be 'teaching online' (not the for profit online schooling) with links in the teachers' daily course plan to allow the students to flip between the necessary sites.

Yes. In google classroom, the teacher posts a link to spelling city, the site they use for spelling. HOWEVER, spelling city is not integrated with Google classroom. They don't "tal;k" So, you can't do single server sign ons. 

You also can't have spelling city be open for anyone, because the kids do their actual spelling tests through this program. Thus, a separate user name/password is needed.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Sept 23, 2020 22:33:07 GMT -5 stillmovingforward said:

So are the schools teaching online or trying to have online curriculum?
I would have thought it would be 'teaching online' (not the for profit online schooling) with links in the teachers' daily course plan to allow the students to flip between the necessary sites.

Good heavens, I really hope my question makes sense! And that I don't sound antagonistic because I don't mean to be. But I'll acknowledge this is a touchy subject. I'm just trying to figure this out.

For the record, I think public school gets a bad rap and is underfunded.

Most traditional schools are 
trying to 
teach online. 

The for-profit programs can be purchased by regular public school districts though. 
I actually didn't think you were being antagonistic at all, and we all know that I'm oversensitive. 

The problem for parents (and teachers in a way) is that getting to all the "stuff" online is actually kind of hard if that's not what you're used to. 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

We use Google Meetings for class.  The teachers are teaching at the same time as they are teaching in the classroom.   The kids get a link invite on their computers when it is time to join.   The teachers also are recording which they upload at the end of the day so kids who couldn't make it to the meeting for various reasons are able to get the material.

There is also Lexia for reading/spelling/grammer,  Prodigy for math and a third one that I can't remember the name of that is a combination of both.   They are supposed to be doing those each day as well.

Fortunately for us the school had the foresight before fall started to lock the computers and create a board that is linked to their Google homepage.   It takes them there automatically and all the apps for the various programs are available.  Everything is single sign on so once they are logged onto their computers for the day they are ready to go.

Which thank God for.  There is no way I'd be able to keep track of dozens of passwords and links to everything.

[Lizard Queen]

I don't think the professional world as a whole did as well as you think. I think a lot of them went, fuck it, I can't work like this, and headed into the office if they could get away with it. That's what the other billing lady did at my place, as well as the payroll lady, who theoretically should have had the easiest time WFH. Even my husband did, because his work takes so much longer from home.

[Deleted]

Sept 24, 2020 7:38:42 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

I don't think the professional world as a whole did as well as you think. I think a lot of them went, fuck it, I can't work like this, and headed into the office if they could get away with it. That's what the other billing lady did at my place, as well as the payroll lady, who theoretically should have had the easiest time WFH. Even my husband did, because his work takes so much longer from home.

Our engineering department really need to be on site a lot of time and of course production does, but for pretty much all the other departments it's not any different having them at home than if they were in the cubes.  Most interaction is through Microsoft Teams and email the same as always.  I've been sneaking home everyday at 2 due to school issues and nobody even knows I'm gone.  Even though I can't work from home all the time, I'd be happy if they just didn't bring the other 90% back.

[Lizard Queen]

Sept 24, 2020 7:47:30 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Sept 24, 2020 7:38:42 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

I don't think the professional world as a whole did as well as you think. I think a lot of them went, fuck it, I can't work like this, and headed into the office if they could get away with it. That's what the other billing lady did at my place, as well as the payroll lady, who theoretically should have had the easiest time WFH. Even my husband did, because his work takes so much longer from home.

Our engineering department really need to be on site a lot of time and of course production does, but for pretty much all the other departments it's not any different having them at home than if they were in the cubes.  Most interaction is through Microsoft Teams and email the same as always.  I've been sneaking home everyday at 2 due to school issues and nobody even knows I'm gone.  Even though I can't work from home all the time, I'd be happy if they just didn't bring the other 90% back.

The issue is internet speed and dropping signals. Like I said, the payroll lady should have had the easiest time switching to WFH. Her payroll program was already 100% online. She really liked the idea of WFH, too. She ran into too many errors because her internet was too slow. Ours should be adequate, after switching to cable, but we routinely ran into problems in the afternoons when everyone in the neighborhood apparently was using Comcast.

[teen persuasion]

The problems with online school started in the spring when we were dumped into online literally overnight (first local cases found Saturday, schools closed Sunday, Monday everyone online immediately, ha). So for my DS5, individual teachers were scrambling to reach the kids. One immediately emailed lessons daily, and eventually set up Google classroom. One used the school district website to list links to daily lessons. Two tried Schoology, had lots of tech issues, but were afraid to jump ship to Google classroom after investing the time in Schoology. Some half-assed it with emails and video links. It was a patchwork mess.

My DH's agency wouldn't approve his use of Google classroom for weeks, because of privacy concerns for his students. That stymied his lessons. Then when they did approve, communication problems left a gap (wasn't clear who would be setting up student accounts and informing students, tech or DH). Then internet access issues for students in needy homes meant he still needed paper lessons delivered to homes, too.

By summer, the agency had more experience. DH taught fully online over the summer, but went into work to broadcast (for better internet). Now he's fully in person, but has to teach to a Chromebook, too, for students that are remote for various reasons. Some districts can't record/broadcast live lessons, because union rules forbid it. So they needed to hire teachers specifically for remote (they had a large number choose remote), and were short staffed from retirements/quitters. Their plans went from 1) fully in person to 2) hybrid to 3) optional remote students can't start until we hire more to 4) 100% remote (because it's easier). No one is happy with that district.

[stillmovingforward]

Thank you everyone! That helps a lot to understand the issue.🙂

[teen persuasion]

Even within one platform, there's issues.

DS4 has had most of his college classes via zoom meetings, but different instructors send the links differently. Some use a meeting # and password, some a direct link, and there's differences between them we are still quibbling over. Zoom worked fine for Tuesday's class, but Thursday he couldn't get his camera to work (same laptop). Eventually after much fiddling and troubleshooting I tried the obvious (reboot) and got the camera working again (he didn't want to reboot the laptop DURING his class, since he could hear and had video, they just had no video of him). The different instructors used different zoom access procedures.

We learned in the troubleshooting process that DH's laptop has issues if he switches from Google classroom (teaching) to zoom (union or agency meetings) without a reboot in between, so the platforms obviously interfere with device settings in ways that create trouble.

It's difficult to diagnose these types of tech issues across platforms; then add in all the different devices students might be using. DS4 was using his phone for zoom meetings last spring.

[raeoflyte]

My issue last spring as a parent was trying to manage all the little things that came up for 2 kids plus stay engaged with my job.

Mom, my screens frozen.
Mom, I can't hear anything.
Mom, I can't find the assignment.
Etc.

Figuring everything out when the interpreter is a 7 year old makes navigating multiple sites and assignments pretty painful. Plus bandwith issues. Plus figuring out how hands on I needed to be. I have so much sympathy for teachers who were teaching from home while their kids were in the next room trying to get through school online.

My kids were only online for 2-3 hours a day. I couldnt imagine doing that for 6 hours a day.

[tractor]

I do know the stress level has increased dramatically for most teachers. If my wife wasn’t 2-years away from being eligible for retirement she would be done...

Her district changed platforms just before school started, only to find out that they didn’t have adequate hardware for all the teachers (let alone the students) so now she has a mix of on-line and paper copies which she has to get sent out to her students.

She’s a special ed teacher, so half her kids can’t use a computer, and the other half have their parents doing the homework because it’s “too hard” for little Johnny. It’s a major cluster.

Without any coordinated effort between school districts, and with everyone scrambling to just get by, education in this country has really taken a hit by this virus, and it will be felt for many years to come and the learning gap widens.

[Ryan]

My wife is a teacher and they do an AM/PM schedule and split up the class.  The 2nd half of the day is all independent work.  A neighboring district does the same thing, but the other half is filled with independent work and specials class done over zoom.

Our district is doing something very goofy and having the kids in school 2 half days a week.  If it's not your "on" day, then you zoom into the class.  The problem is that the teacher has to manage both in-person and kids over zoom.  They are doing a good job, but it's still a big mess.  

So many apps, so many instructions for submitting assignments, completing math work online is a hassle.  Everything is just brutal.

As a result, there is a huge push to get people back in school now.  Everyone is seeing there is a huge decline from test scores in the winter and that remote learning doesn't work well.  

My comfort level is AM/PM with the class split, but I'm worried they are going to try and fit all the kids in school.  

[gs11rmb]

We had a middle school meeting last night.  The principal was just addressing the fact that the teachers are using whichever platform they feel most comfortable with and it will continue.  That was not making parents happy (including me) when we got interrupted by zoom bombers screaming sexual and racial obscenities  .  They had to halt the meeting and so we've been left with the decision that the school won't mandate just one platform.

[stillmovingforward]

Wow guys! This is really an educational look into education in our country. I graduated to start a thread on it and now i'm glad I did. Im learning a lot about what teachers are up against.