Virtual Learning

Virtual Learning

Since I wrote last week, pretty much every elementary and secondary school on the continent is closed for at least two or three weeks in the name of social distancing.  It is a drastic move but necessary since it is all about flattening the curve and attempting to prevent community spread of the Coroni Virus.  Naturally, in this day or enhanced use of technology, there have been increasing calls for the use of online learning to prevent students from losing ground in their studies and to keep them occupied during the many hours that everyone is forced to stay inside.  In a perfect world, it would be very easy for a lot of schools to pick up the slack quickly and mount massive online learning portals. But.....the truth of the matter is that there are large swaths of this continent that do not possess the capability to turn to online learning. They do not have the bandwidth necessary to support even the most rudimentary wireless communications. They do not have the wireless hardware or software to use to enable students to go online.  Th educators don't possess the knowledge, skills or affect to facilitate the online learning of their students.  I speak from experience.  It is not more than 18 years ago when I used technology and online learning to facilitate a  project that brought a group of students together  to create websites as culminating learning activities to demonstrate their new learning.  I went from school to school to work with students and their teachers.  These were highly motivated participants and even with desire to get on line, there were numerous problems.  I worked with a group of adults today who stabbed at an online communication tool that had been recommended to the leader of our group and it was a terrible product. I tried to suggest a much better tool for use but the president ignored my suggestions because the husband of a close friend had been consulted and he suggested this particular tool.  It was awful and I can just imagine how frustrated and unwilling to try again some of the participants were.  Sadly we are still stuck with tech tools that require a certain level of sophistication and some pre-learning and until such learning becomes a compulsory part of teacher education, it is not going to happen. Sadly, parts of the U. S. and Canada, through no fault of the students or their parents, will not be able to use technology because administrators have not made it a priority.  Sadly, we are now going to hear and see what happens when you don't take the advice of the sages in a profession and ignore their suggestions and keep your heads in the sand.  After this is all said and done, this social separation, it will be interesting to see just how various jurisdictions react and what changes will be made as a result.