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I am curious to what differentiates the ones where remote learning is working and to those that aren’t. Because I have been pleasantly surprised to see just how

I am curious to what differentiates the ones where remote learning is working and to those that aren’t. Because I have been pleasantly surprised to see just how well remote learning have been for my kids. Our kids aren’t really any more or less disciplined as any other kids. They did whine and scared at first but slowly got used to the whole change. They are 10 and 11 doing two hour of zoom per day and the rest turn in homework via google classroom and flipgrid for presentations .

texasbigdata 6y ago
Wealth?
- geomark 6y ago
  That's a big part of it. My kid goes to a British international school. Starting in Year 5 all students are required to have a laptop. So when the shutdown happened they all had devices already and were adept at using them. Teachers had some learning curve but it only took about a week to get online learning working pretty smoothly. Contrast that with public schools here that just shutdown and said they would do classes online when most public school kids here don't have a computer. Most have phones and a data plan so they are trying to do lessons via Line or Facetime. But that seems to be very ineffective.
  - eitally 6y ago
    Even in other places, that's an issue. I'm in the San Jose Unified School District here in the Bay Area, and it's hugely diverse. Because of that diversity, the district has been reluctant to mandate any specific online ed requirements, so as not to appear discriminatory toward the families who don't have the ability to participate in online learning. In return, that actively harms the families who can. Currently, all the assignments are "suggested", are ungraded, and the teachers are only "suggested" to schedule 2 online class meetings per week. what this means is that kids in families who are willing & able to maintain learning pace are being told both that 1) here is the list of weekly assignments 2) your teacher is only going to be marginally available, and 3) none of this work is going to be graded. This is the on time in my parenting experience where it's been 100% clear that private schools have a night & day advantage over public schools and districts.
    - geomark 6y ago
      That seems quite bad. It's a graphic example of how when it comes to public schools, or public policy in general, things get dumbed down to the lowest common denominator in the interest of "fairness" regardless of how unfair it is for those who are ready and able to do more. I don't know how that would get fixed, other than, as you said, moving to private. When you are paying directly (versus indirectly via taxation) you can demand a lot more.

texasbigdata 6y ago

Wealth?

geomark 6y ago
That's a big part of it. My kid goes to a British international school. Starting in Year 5 all students are required to have a laptop. So when the shutdown happened they all had devices already and were adept at using them. Teachers had some learning curve but it only took about a week to get online learning working pretty smoothly. Contrast that with public schools here that just shutdown and said they would do classes online when most public school kids here don't have a computer. Most have phones and a data plan so they are trying to do lessons via Line or Facetime. But that seems to be very ineffective.
- eitally 6y ago
  Even in other places, that's an issue. I'm in the San Jose Unified School District here in the Bay Area, and it's hugely diverse. Because of that diversity, the district has been reluctant to mandate any specific online ed requirements, so as not to appear discriminatory toward the families who don't have the ability to participate in online learning. In return, that actively harms the families who can. Currently, all the assignments are "suggested", are ungraded, and the teachers are only "suggested" to schedule 2 online class meetings per week. what this means is that kids in families who are willing & able to maintain learning pace are being told both that 1) here is the list of weekly assignments 2) your teacher is only going to be marginally available, and 3) none of this work is going to be graded. This is the on time in my parenting experience where it's been 100% clear that private schools have a night & day advantage over public schools and districts.
  - geomark 6y ago
    That seems quite bad. It's a graphic example of how when it comes to public schools, or public policy in general, things get dumbed down to the lowest common denominator in the interest of "fairness" regardless of how unfair it is for those who are ready and able to do more. I don't know how that would get fixed, other than, as you said, moving to private. When you are paying directly (versus indirectly via taxation) you can demand a lot more.