Use of Technology During Mandatory Isolation Periods

Use of Technology During Mandatory Isolation Periods

I get a lot of things sent to me by email because I read very widely on a lot of topics.  Obviously,  I get lots of stuff about Education and often note certain headlines because they trigger a memory or a response.  Today, something came via email about various districts in the U. S. mandating the use of technology in order to conduct lessons online when students are forced to stay in isolation because schools are closed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.  What struck me as odd was the fact that this is being asked of large swaths of the country where there has been little investment in the kind of technology required or the bandwidth to carry lessons and their components across the distances.  I remember way back when, when webcams were just knew things and the idea of distance education was just breaking through into awareness. One of my colleagues asked me about the use of a webcam on his desk so that a student who was forced to stay home to recover from surgery could see him and her classmates during the day. The student was extremely lonely and agitated because she was missing her classes.  My colleague asked me what I thought and of course, it was a no-brainer in my mind.  He then reported what a huge difference the technology made to the student's morale and hence to her recovery time.  But we had the capability and the teacher had the knowledge and willingness to try it out. What will happen in large parts of the Continental United States where they do not have the infrastructure nor the knowledge level to facilitate a compulsory move like that right  now? We hope that things won't get as desperate in the U. S. as they have been in places like China, Italy, Japan and South Korea.  BUT....suppose they do.  Nothing would be more devastating to those places not able to conduct business through the wires and it would be no one else's fault than the politicians who have consistently denied the importance of public education and ensured it was funded properly. No one could be surprised if it raised issues of diversity, equality of opportunity and the necessity for proper funding.  A large part of me hopes it will  happen just like that and the buck will stop on the desk of Donald Trump.