Will kids be stuck for hours at screens? Parents have lots of distance-learning questions
How will students and teachers be held accountable during distance learning? Will kids have to sit for hours on end in front of their computer screens? How will students and parents know to use the learning devices sent home?
Those were among the many concerns participants shared with Modesto City Schools administrators during an online forum on distance learning that was offered twice Thursday.
A little over 1,000 people joined at least a portion of the program. In just one session, more than 750 questions were submitted, on topics including how hands-on instruction like science labs and physical education will happen virtually.
Because each session was an hour, and because much remains undetermined as the Aug. 10 start of the MCS school year nears, district administrators could answer just a small fraction of what participants wanted to know. “We are in the process of sorting through the hundreds of questions we received ... so we can create a FAQ (frequently asked questions) document to help parents and students,” district spokeswoman Krista Noonan said Sunday. “This is a rapidly changing situation, so we are doing our best to flex with the changes and keep everyone informed.”
Here’s some of what was discussed:
Modesto Virtual Academy
Perhaps the easiest question asked of the district Thursday was about Modesto Virtual Academy, the self-paced independent-study program that is its alternative to daily remote instruction by teachers. MVA uses the Florida Virtual School curriculum, but no, students will not be taught by teachers who are in Florida, Superintendent Sara Noguchi said.
The teachers will be local, and they will meet with each student virtually for one hour a week. They’ll spend that time facilitating the child’s progress and identifying any barriers, Noguchi said. The teacher will work to support the student not just academically but also socially and emotionally, she said, “knowing that these are not easy times for our youth, being home and in many cases being isolated.”
Associate Superintendent Brad Goudeau said the link remains open for families interested in enrolling in MVA. This week, school site administrators will be reaching out to families who’ve completed the preregistration form, to determine if they are still interested in moving forward.
If so, families will be asked to commit to MVA for a grading period, which at the elementary level will be a trimester and, at grades seven through 12, will be a semester, Goudeau said.
Parents have the option of opting out after the first grading period, or remaining the remainder of the year.
Teacher and student accountability
Parents wanted to know about accountability on both sides: ensuring that teachers are doing their jobs and students are doing their work. The learning platform MCS uses, called Schoology, lets administrators follow when teachers and students log in, and for how long, Superintendent Noguchi said.
But more important than just the time signed on is the level of engagement, she said, and students will be given assignments, their work assessed, they will be graded and matriculate to the next level. As in classrooms, their success will reflect the performance of their teachers.
Goudeau added, “We also learned from our process in the spring that we need a more coherent and solid structure for instruction. Specifically, when will students be checking in with teachers? And that’s a little bit of a different challenge at (grades seven through 12), where multiple teachers are in a student’s schedule.”
There is no final memorandum of understanding yet, he said, but the district is working closely with the Modesto Teachers Association and “I think our community will be pleased with the structures that they see roll out, which will be significantly different from the spring.”
Special-education students and students with IEPs (individual education plans) also will be able to do distance learning and MVA “or a version of that,” said Assistant Superintendent Mark Herbst.
Distance learning
Much was asked about how distance learning will work. Parents wanted to know, for instance, if teachers will lead live sessions with students on video.
That’s an expectation of the learning model, Goudeau said. Direct, live interaction with students is part of the education code language that’s come through to help govern and provide consistency across the state, he said.
“I imagine there are some parents out there wondering, well what might that look like? Is my student going to get a live video feed from a teacher for five hours a day? The answer is probably no. There are considerations we need to look at relative to digital fatigue: How long can a student stay staring at a computer screen? And that varies by age span by grade level.”
State law outlines the number of instruction minutes to be provided each day in distance learning by grade level. In transitional kindergarten and kindergarten, it’s 180 minutes, Goudeau said. For grades one through three, it’s 230, and at grades four through 12, it’s 240. All that time does not have to be direct instruction, though, he said. It can include teachers leading guided practice or students doing independent work.
The district will provide coaching to teachers on the matter, Goudeau said, as well as training to students in the early weeks of the school year on how to learn in a digital environment, how to upload documents how to navigate the system.
Devices
How will students who have never used these online learning platforms before be trained? What about their parents?
Devices will be distributed before the start of the school year, Herbst said, and direction on their use will be embedded. But “we know that that probably will not be enough,” he said, so the district is approaching teachers and site administrators about training families. “We will also provide opportunities to our families to be able to log in and make sure that they can access the platform.”
Noguchi said the district has a call center and also will have a drive-through option to help families. Assistance is available in multiple languages, she said. The Internet “is going to be a critical piece to this,” she said, “and we’re here to ensure that they not only have the computer, but that there’s Internet access as well.”
GATE, AP and specialized programs
The Advanced Placement and Gifted and Talented Education curricula will be offered through distance learning, Goudeau said, though MVA does not accommodate GATE.
AP courses are available through the Florida curriculum used in MVA, he said, and “we are working to ensure that those courses are approved and aligned as we would normally do, by instructor and school site. I do not anticipate any issues with Advanced Placement course credit.”
Regarding specialized programs at high schools, like the Health Careers, Public Safety and Performing Arts academies, administrators said the decision was made not to cancel them, but modify them. Using wood shop as an example, Goudeau said, “Obviously, in a distance-learning environment, we can’t flip on the saw and build the birdhouse or anything like that. So we need to rethink what that wood shop class will look like in a virtual learning environment. And that applies across any number of different career technical courses.”
The same reasoning extends to hands-on instruction in science classes, and to physical education. Goudeau said there will have to be “innovative and creative thought” about how to teach content that’s typically interactive.
Noguchi noted that the district is looking into purchasing lab modules for students. “We need to work with teachers to identify what are those essential labs,” she said, “and then look to see what colleges, universities and others have created.”
P.E. classes, Goudeau said, will likely be instruction about the body and how physical fitness impacts our lives. “Some academic learning, I anticipate, would be more at the forefront than in a traditional physical education class at a school when we’re physically present,” he said.
Goudeau and Noguchi asked parents, as district administrators have done before, to have patience as education continues in uncharted territory.
“This isn’t a ‘We’ll have all the answers on Aug. 10 and everything is going to be great’ (scenario),“ Goudeau said. “There will be challenges, there will be bumps, but we have amazing people doing fantastic work,” and they are intent on providing the best possible instruction to students.”
This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 11:19 AM.
