avatarTom Handy

Summary

The article expresses the challenges and shortcomings of America's virtual learning system during the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing the need for adaptations and improvements.

Abstract

The author of the article, a concerned parent and retired Army officer, provides a critical perspective on the state of virtual learning in America. They highlight the difficulties students face with prolonged screen time, the struggle to keep up with assignments, and the burden placed on parents to act as teacher's aides. The piece underscores the inadequate preparation for the transition to online education, noting that both teachers and students were thrust into a new environment with minimal guidance. Issues such as lack of internet access, insufficient computer hardware, and the absence of printers in many homes exacerbate the situation, disproportionately affecting low-income families. The author offers three recommendations to mitigate these challenges: reducing homework, utilizing the Tiny Scanner app for homework submission, and incorporating 'commercial breaks' to maintain student engagement.

Opinions

  • The author believes that the current virtual learning setup in America is inadequate and has not been effectively implemented.
  • There is a concern that prolonged screen time is detrimental to students' engagement and overall well-being.
  • The author suggests that the responsibility of ensuring students complete assignments has fallen heavily on parents, who are often ill-equipped to handle the role.
  • The article points out that the digital divide, particularly in terms of internet access and computer availability, is a significant barrier to successful virtual learning.
  • The author criticizes the amount of homework assigned, which they argue is overwhelming and often not completed by students.
  • There is a recommendation for teachers to integrate creative breaks, akin to commercial breaks, to keep students attentive and engaged during virtual classes.
  • The author emphasizes that the current state of virtual learning is failing students, parents, and teachers, and immediate action is needed to address these issues.

For The First Time, America Failed Its Virtual Learning Test

A rant as a concerned parent with three recommendations

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

If you have kids doing virtual learning for school, you can say America is not ready yet. I have two kids in school and the first month has been a complete disaster.

Kids are in front of their computers at least six to eight hours for school, and then turn around for another few hours after school doing homework on their computer.

The first month has been a fire hose coming full blast at parents and students.

I understand that teachers are getting out of their comfort zone, experiencing technical issues, and talking to their kids online instead of face to face. So far, the United States is failing this test.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Nelson Mandela

Kids are bored

Students like to move around as they go to class, physical education, or the lunchroom. Instead, they’re stuck to their desk or table watching their teacher and friends on a computer screen.

This is as bad as watching television all day long.

Some teachers do their best to make the class exciting. A few teachers are probably pretty strict and just want to teach.

I am sure you know some teachers like that.

There is no happy medium as teachers were thrown into this with little guidance other than make it happen.

Students sit in front of their screen listen to their teacher explain how to add or divide numbers before they move on to a science or social studies class.

Students are overwhelmed

As students are trying to keep up with the work during the day, it’s easy for them to miss an assignment or two.

I haven’t observed what the teachers are doing, but this isn’t working very well.

My daughter is an excellent student and she has missed turning in several assignments.

I remember in school, teachers used to stomp their feet when they wanted you to remember something for an exam. Teachers need to do something similar to remind students about key facts to know or even remind them about homework assignments.

Parents are the teacher’s aide

As the school year started, some schools asked parents to sign up for different apps to stay in touch with teachers.

My daughter’s school uses ClassDoJo to communicate with parents.

Personally, I don’t like the app.

Homework assistant. One time, the teacher asked why I didn’t upload my daughter’s work in one section. I told her I had no idea how to do that.

The teacher then sent me a video from YouTube and that was even more confusing. The video creator missed a key point on how to upload work. I ended up searching online for a better video.

Verify student progress. Another time the teacher told me to follow up on my daughter’s assignment while giving me the assignment. I asked my daughter where was the assignment and she was just as confused as I was.

Frustration is spreading from teachers to students to parents all at the same time.

Some families don’t have an internet connection

Not everyone has money to afford the internet. There are some families in America who are poor and the internet is not in their budget.

In 2018, 38 million people were considered poor which is about 11% of the population.

Of this, 16% or 11 million children were considered living in poverty.

Not everyone can afford the internet and schools expect families to log in to their computer or the computer provided by the school.

  • A teacher outside of Fresno, California reported that 20% of her eighth-grade students don’t have internet at home.

This issue will come back to hurt students who don’t have access to a computer. Even though schools have done their best, I’m sure there are still some families who have not worked online for school.

  • A school in Live Oak, California, just north of Sacramento, reported only eight of 24 students logged into class on the first day of school.

We take for granted having a computer and internet access while millions of families have neither.

Some families don’t have computers

Schools are doing their best buying computers and some computers are arriving after school has already started. This puts students behind as teachers are working with students who already have a computer connection.

Even if the computers are provided, this goes back to the previous issue of not having internet access.

Parents can pick up computers but when they don’t have internet access, the computer becomes one oversized paperweight.

In a year from now, there will be a lot of lessons learned for school districts as well as cities. It is likely this scenario will happen again in the future but with a different virus.

Families don’t have printers

Sometimes you take many things for granted in life. The coronavirus is exposing that today.

As school starts off, many families don’t have printers in their homes. This brings up several issues.

First, it forces parents to buy a printer, and hopefully, they have a computer that goes along with it.

Second, you have to hope the parents are technologically savvy to install and use the printer with their computers. Printers may seem easy to use but there will be times when the printer gets jammed or doesn’t want to print for some reason.

A printer costs about $50, but many families can’t afford $50 for a printer. Many families believe they’ll never use the printer again so why waste $50 on a printer when they could use the money for food or paying their utility bills.

Recommendations

A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning.

Brad Henry

1. Teachers need to give less homework

My kid’s school district just announced they’ll pause giving homework to students during virtual learning after getting through the first month of school.

Do you know why?

Students were not turning in their homework.

Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash

For whatever reason, students were not understanding what was homework that needed to be turned in to their teacher. Kids are in a new experience and some don’t fully understand how to send in their homework to their teacher. Or they may not know that they need to turn in for homework. This is a completely new experience for them.

While sitting in front of their computer all day, the last thing the student wants to do is spend a few more hours in front of the computer screen doing homework.

Teachers need to spend more time doing homework in class with students. Yes, this sets the teacher behind. For teachers to keep their class together, they need to do that. This is an easier way to keep everyone together and prevent students from getting any further behind.

2. Tell parents to use Tiny Screen to scan/upload their child’s work

Some families don’t have a printer at home which causes issues for turning in homework.

Students can take pictures and send the work but not everyone is a skilled photographer.

One time, my son held his paper up in the air and took a picture to send his work in.

It was funny watching him do this. After I saw how he sent in his work, I showed him how he should do it.

The Tiny App scanner can be downloaded to any phone. It operates similarly to a camera on your phone.

You take a picture of the document with the app. Then the app measures the size of the document so you can trim off the excess images you don’t need.

It works great as I have personally used this to send documents to different businesses.

3. Teachers should have a commercial break during the day

I used to have a history professor in school. As you know, history can be boring sometimes. Well, the professor tried his best and had a TV commercial break during class.

He would say, “Let’s take a TV time-out.”

Then the professor would talk about a different topic and wake students up from class. This little break helped as we were discussing the American Revolution or the Civil War which can be boring sometimes.

Teachers need to be creative to keep their student’s attention. For some teachers, this will be very hard as some have taught for 30 to 40 years by now and waiting to collect their retirement.

For them getting out of their comfort zone won’t happen. Many are set in their ways.

America has failed in the first part of this virtual learning that was thrown down everyone's throat in 2020. The coronavirus has brought more havoc than many expected this year. As you see governments issuing orders to close restaurants, and forcing people to wear masks, schools are not doing any better.

Tom Handy is a top Finance, Investment, and Bitcoin writer on Medium, and the father of two kids. He retired from the Army and sits on several non-profit boards. You can find him on Twitter @tomhandy1.

Schools
Coronavirus
Covid-19
Parenting
Education
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