Right now education on all levels is feeling the impact
of the coronavirus. Grade schools are taking extended spring breaks and higher
education is doing longer breaks and switching to online formats. As of today
many schools are also canceling their graduation ceremonies. One interesting
thing that Japanese elementary students are doing is they set up their own
graduation ceremony in Minecraft (Wilson). Schools and people will need to be
creative during this time to meet all of their different needs. These school
closures are also impacting parents and not everyone has backup child care.
At the same time it is understandable for these
closures to happen if you look at both health advisories and how education
works in our country. Classrooms are normally small and packed with students
and these changes are needed in order to protect everyone. Most desks are
spaced only far enough away from each other to allow people to walk past and
most student’s do not have their own desk, but have several other students
sharing the same space at different times of the day. I will fully admit that I
have worked in the private for profit education industry at online only
schools. I understand that for traditional schools thinking about switching
over to online only can be scary, but it has been done and needs to be done
with the current health issues. One of the key things is using any existing
online classroom to the fullest.
There are many
different classroom platforms that schools can use. Some of the most popular
are D2L, Canvas, and Blackboard. During the changeover, professors/teachers
that have already started to integrate online education will have the easiest time
with the change. Blackboard has seen a massive jump in downloads of its app and
is doing what it can with video tutorials (Blakemore). This switch over with
the help of technology could be a big help slowing the virus, but it can also
be hurtful as well. Here in Colorado a lot of our students do not have access
to computers or the internet. Many students in DPS are on free or reduced lunch
and this more than likely coincides with them being able to get access to their
school work. Another impact on this is that many if not most libraries are also
closed right now. The other option would be going to restaurants, but with the governor
closing all dine in at restaurants yesterday this has also been stopped. This
means that if students are lucky enough to have a laptop computer their only
option would be to go to stores like Walmart or sit outside in their cars at
locations that have free wifi for their customers.
Extended spring breaks and the technology issues are
not the only negative impact that students are facing. It is also getting to be
that time of year when high school students need to take the ACT and SAT. If
students are not able to sit for these tests or prepare for them, this could
impact them being able to get into college. Some colleges have started to look
at multiple measures when trying to see if a student should be given admission
to their school. One of these is high school GPA (which the virus could also affect).
The problem is that not all schools are doing this and most still rely on test
scores.
The virus is not only impacting traditional
education venues, but non-traditional as well. Both the Denver Museum and
Denver Zoo has also announced that they will be closed until future notice.
When you add this to the closure of the local libraries, even self-education is
getting smaller and smaller. There are ways around this as well. One is that
Scholastic is offering free online courses for kids. The even have developed material
for kids on the coronavirus, check out: http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/press-release/scholastic-creates-free-open-access-digital-hub-help-keep-students-learning-while-scho
.
Some museums also offer virtual tours : https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours
.
For older learners you can also check out Harvard’s free courses: https://online-learning.harvard.edu/trending
So as we start to settle in to see if we can wait out this virus, I
challenge all of you to keep your education going.
Works Cited
Blakemore, Lee. “Blackboard works together with the educational
community to deliver continuity of education during coronavirus.” Education
Dive. Accessed March 17, 2020.
Wilson, Scott. “Japanese students hold graduation ceremony in Minecraft
amid school cancellation.” Sora News 24. Accessed March 17, 2020.
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