Education in isolation
I have become the de facto IT support team for an elementary school. Being a technology expert in Silicon Valley, I have also developed a…
I have become the de facto IT support team for an elementary school. Being a technology expert in Silicon Valley, I have also developed a few insights on remote learning, teachers, parents, and the old world of school technology. I would like to share my ideas with you now. More importantly, addressing the conflict of interests that continue to vex our education system. As we progress through this new world order, we need to develop a new world-class system to support online education.
School districts are underfunded and unprepared for this sudden requirement. Smart classrooms have been the tag line for decades. Funding has never supported the expectations, and this new isolation requirement is massively out of scope. Smartboards, multimedia support, online homework management, and a whole host of other services are a patchwork. Whatever has worked is now locked away in a facility and not useful for remote learning. Old IT policies are rapidly crippling change. Overtaxed Jr. IT people are being asked to do expert level administrative tasks that business people think is a standard operating procedure.
Home environments are underfunded and unprepared for this sudden requirement. No defined workspaces, multiple students at different grade levels in the same time slot, four people on video chat at one time, and low bandwidth connections all contribute to complete loss of contact for many students. Not to mention people who don’t have access to computers. Districts have deployed as many systems as they can to students who don’t have computers, but what about simple internet connectivity? How about lighting or sound? Some people are using cell phones as the only means of communication, and they don’t work all that well when there are twenty-five-plus people online at once. Let alone if it’s mom or dad’s phone, and they get a call in the middle of class.
As a CyberSecurity professional, I am going to put this front and center. Forget about it. Until we fix this, it’s an unrealistic expectation. There are going to be monumental issues and risks.
Teachers do not have the required equipment. Windows 7 on old hardware is merely useless. Let’s take a simple use case. They are adding a printer. Step one is to get administrator access. That, in turn, requires a work order from the school secretary. That, in turn, requires an appointment. In the end, they won’t do it for you.
This workflow often ends up with one of two answers; not possible due to hardware drivers or not allowed by policy.
In many cases, they want the system on-site to complete the work. IT does not, and can not, perform house calls. It’s like working from an IT playbook from 1995, and you can forget installing critical software patches, security, or even LAN connections in most cases.
Teachers have conflicting mission statements. In-person guided lesson models do not work with online facilitation models. They are vastly different models of education.
Students, especially in the lower grades, can not manage all the technology. They don’t have the social skills people have developed through trial and error. They are forcing teachers to lead the online experience through a maze of tools while keeping kids engaged and on track. Children will be children as they say.
Social skills are essential, and the tools were never created for disruptive and spontaneous interactions children create. Lack of social interaction has left some kids longing to talk with friends. Sidebar conversations, a need to be the center of attention, and a host of other social interactions make online learning a challenge unlike anything parents have to deal with at work. And yet, parents observe this slow-motion chaos and demand more from teachers. Dare I say miracles.
Parents have unreasonable expectations. Three people in a meeting might agree on a method. Thirty-plus will never agree. Some parents want 7 hours of online teaching with a teacher broadcasting content and being a monitor. Others don’t want more screen time put on children. Some demand paperwork packets, while others wish online file sharing. Some parents expect online school field trips or specialized breakout sessions for kids within real-time. I have witnessed this and much more in the last few months. It’s astonishing.
Teaching at UC Berkeley prepared me for online teaching. But it’s nothing compared to this. It’s all the same issues magnified 10x.
Many professionals in Silicon Valley have preferred online systems. It seems they all want their school to use that tool. Whatever it is. A few parents have companies that provide online learning services and demand their products be used or evaluated; NOW. The most challenging issue comes from a business workflow experience vs. a teacher’s standard workflow and district policies. In other words, one method is vastly different from the other, and it’s causing as many issues as the technologies themselves.
School districts are doing the best they can in trying times. I have been impressed with the leadership and communication skills employed by my wife’s administrators and colleagues. They have taught me how to be more compassionate in supporting new skills and tools on the fly. No one complains when the rules are changing daily. As no one has a playbook, and parents are shifting their expectations based on an ever-increasing pressure to work from home. All of this is making for a perfect storm of dissatisfaction for everyone. Yet, districts and teachers are chipping away at the new playbook one page at a time.
Teachers have risen to the challenge. Teachers have used personal tools, computers, accessories, connectivity, and spouses to accomplish this painful transformation. While teachers have reimbursement expectations for all this extra work, they would like to be appreciated. Having the same work from home issues everyone else does, it’s terrible to have a whole group of parents and undefined district policies make it worse. Yet, despite all this, they soldier on.
Teachers will require new tools. Google services, Zoom, Online Classroom, XYZ, this or that program for whiteboard or homework tracking. It’s a patchwork of plans. Some devices require a license tied to these antiquated beasts called laptops. Some applications are windows DOS and require screen sharing.
In most cases, I can’t even use a secondary system to help out as the software is not accessible outside of a district server. Teachers have been watching endless hours of YouTube, online support, individual in-service work, and using personal tools to facilitate the learning experience. Some better than others, but everyone has taken on skills in record time. I am much impressed with how the changing landscape took people who rarely use standard industry programs and turned them into useful instructional aids.
Parents will have to be more understanding and clear on future expectations. Teachers have to perform their job under a system developed over one hundred years. Technology and work from home pressures are making a difficult task nearly impossible for everyone. What we take for granted at work is alien in the school environment.
Each parent brings a different level of experience and tolerance for what education is. Let’s be clear. None of this has anything to do with homeschooling, private schooling, or anything else. Times are changing; our systems need help adjusting too. That will take time, money, and most importantly, compassion. Parents are not wrong or unjustified. They just have to appreciate, as they do at work, this is a community, and there is no IT department to blame for what does not work.
The tipping point is here, and there is no going back. Remote learning is the new normal or at least a new mode of operation. Schools will have to rethink these demands just as a business has over the last 25 years. The “Bring Your Own Device”, (BYOD) and supporting infrastructure will need to be addressed. New policies and IT support methods will be mandatory. Districts can’t rely on part-time Jr. college students to run an IT department. These requirements will have to trickle up to the state through the complex patchwork process we have today, driven by parents and new funding opportunities. Let’s forget the past and plan for our new future. It’s the new normal. Let’s be ready for the future that is here today.