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Both my children's schools were closed for over three days last week due to snow. It was definitely right to close the buildings, but no explanation came from the schools as to why all teaching and learning activity also had to stop.
Both schools have learning platforms (or VLEs). In my view, a school that has embedded usage of these tools in their day to day activity should not need to stop work when the buildings are closed.
But here are 6 reasons for schools who don't want to use technology to maintain a service during closure days:
- It's too different to how we normally operate, so the students won't be able to handle it.
[My response: Why aren't you using these tools to support your normal work?] - Our teachers are not confident in the use of these tools.
[My response: Why not?] - Some of the students do not have internet access.
[My response: OK. So how are you going to plan ahead so that these students can have access - whether at friends or elsewhere?] - Some of the teachers do not have internet access.
[My response: How can a teacher be effective these days without it? How are you going to plan ahead so they can get access when it's needed?] - We don't have a Learning Platform.
[My response: You don't need one. Just start by using the masses of free tools listed on Jane Hart's C4LPT website. Or sign-up for Google Apps for Educators (also free). When you have worked out what you really need a Learning Platform to do, then you can start to think about buying one to meet your specific needs.] - The students wouldn't do the work anyway.
[My response: What are your expectations of the students? What incentives do you already use as part of classroom management? What support do teachers get from Senior Management in handling unwilling learners? Why can't you extend those strategies to online work as well?] - It's extra work for the teachers to produce all the resources required.
[My response: Yes, maybe. But there are real, practical benefits to teaching and learning online that will balance it out, such as: automated marking, deeper and broader learning, opportunity for less confident learners to contribute etc (See the European Education Partnership for more)]
What reasons did your school give for not maintaining a service last week? What are their strategies in the case of a long term closure (such as with a flu epidemic)? Are these really practical if they're not already putting those strategies in practice on a day-to-day basis?
For more, see the Naace press release on "Two kinds of school"
[Update]
Northern Echo news report: Stranded students log on from home. What a shame this is still newsworthy!
[Update 2]
As you will notice - I can't count!
4 comments
My daughter’s school has a policy that when school is canceled students are still required to log on from home. Of course, her school is non-traditional with students coming from a 50 mile radius and 34 school districts.
However, there really are some problems with internet connection and access to the internet, at least here in the US. We have some areas in which there is NO internet access (or cell phone for that matter).
Two years ago we had an ice storm which knocked out power for some people for up to a week. Many of them were living with the problems of where to stay as they had no power, where to eat as they had no way to keep or cook food, and had children and elderly that they had to care for. In this case of turmoil, I have to question what the point is to require students to continue to study from home. Really, what would 5 days be? We usually end up making those days up during the year or by adding days at the end of the school year (our school has 2 “snow days” built into the calendar and 5 “emergency make-up days” which are holidays throughout the spring if they are not needed for snow days.
Hi Virginia,
It sounds like your situation is way more extreme than anything we get. In which case I’d agree with you. There are things more important than education!
Also, would be useful for children off sick for a few days (sick today, feeling better but can’t go back for 48hrs) or longer to keep up.
I have wondered if there were easily set up systems for this to be a reality . . . if it became a general thing then when the “big chill” arrived it would be a natural mode of operation rather than an “emergency action plan"!
Agreed Andrew.
I was in exactly that position this week, with a child off sick. For some reason her teachers don’t use their VLE (which has been in place for years!) to add resources or homework!
Mark
