The Challenges of Remote Learning

What have the challenges been and how do we keep students engaged in a difficult remote learning climate?

Remote learning is a role that parents and caregivers were thrown into with little to no warning or ways of preparing. There have been some success and some failure with the process. A big determining factor of whether or not parents have had any success with their children through remote learning plays a lot into the ways their children learn best. Some kids are thriving in remote learning and others work better in a classroom setting where they can be more social. Regardless of whether children are doing well in remote learning is the fact that some of the problems that have come up have been ones that are completely out of their control. Many parents and students in low-income families worried about how they would keep up without any access to the internet or laptops, computers and tablets. Some schools, including CPS, sent out tablets and provided hard copies to students who were unable to get their hands on internet access. Comcast even offered up free Wi-Fi to students with no internet access. Despite all this though, there were still many problems with remote learning that would cause many people to say that it was unsuccessful.

Online Training

Many teachers are trained to teach in the classrooms so transferring their teaching methods to online zoom calls hasn’t necessarily been easy. Some teaching methods may not be as successful online as they would be in person. It’s also harder for teachers to get students to engage and participate. It also makes it harder on the teacher to come up with homework assignments and tests/quizzes and actually ensure that the students are retaining the information.

Solution: Authoring tools have been very helpful for teachers because they provide them with software to create their own e-learning programs. Click here for a list of helpful authoring tools.

Technical Issues

When dealing with the internet it’s inevitable that problems will arise such as no Wi-Fi, bad internet connections, problems with apps and software and simply people not knowing how to work certain things. These things can be a headache on all parties involved (parents, students and teachers) and interrupt important learning lessons.

Solution: The biggest way to prevent any technical problems is to login to class early to ensure that you have a stable internet connection and your logins/passwords are working. It might also be helpful for schools to have technical support people on standby to help anyone that may be experiencing technical difficulties.

No One-on-One Time For Students

Some students require extra attention and may need to have a one-on-one with teachers to ask questions and get additional help. That is not entirely easy to do through e-learning, which may leave some students falling behind in the classrooms.

Solution: For students who need help during the e-learning session let them know how they can ask questions during class, i.e. using the “hand up” function or using the chat feature. It might also be helpful to have another person on standby to help answer the questions of students that need additional help. Aside from that teachers can elect to hold individual calls with a student if they need more help.

Even with addressing the problems above, remote learning still had some problems that were hard to solve. For starters many students were disinterested and failed to show up to class; and with parents too busy to keep track of their kids’ work and teachers not able to get in contact with them many students fell behind. Some districts even stopped requiring students to do any work at all or told them that no one wouldn’t fail either way, which in turn causes students to stop caring. Many teachers also were putting in minimal effort with their teaching methods hopping on calls for only a few minutes leaving parents to deal with the fallout of how to teach their children in something they weren’t trained for.

In the future, in order for educators to keep children engaged during remote learning the following needs to happen:

1. Allow students to feel like they are actually learning something rather than just doing busy work
2. More strategy and planning
3. Equal opportunity across the board for low-income families and families of color
4. Better support for students without internet access
5. Better support for students with disabilities
6. Unique and creative ways for students to learn and socialize besides sitting in front of the screen all day
7. More enforcement on making sure students are actually attending classes, engaging, learning and getting the help they need
8. More communication and effort between teachers and parents

Sources:

https://www.npr.org/local/305/2020/03/18/817691597/as-classes-move-online-what-happens-to-students-without-internet-or-computers

https://www.wsj.com/articles/schools-coronavirus-remote-learning-lockdown-tech-11591375078

https://www.chalkbeat.org/2020/6/26/21304405/surveys-remote-learning-coronavirus-success-failure-teachers-parents

https://trainingindustry.com/articles/remote-learning/5-remote-learning-challenges-and-how-to-overcome-them/

The Truth Behind Microaggressions Including Ones Your Child Might be Facing In the Classroom

Microaggressions are extremely dangerous because in most cases people are unintentionally projecting them unto others. At the same time, microaggressions can also be intentional and used as a passive-aggressive way to spread bias or stereotype about a specific group without coming off too hateful. This includes “hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward stigmatized or culturally marginalized groups.” In other words they can be instances of racism, homophopia, sexism, etc. masked as innocent comments, gestures, jokes, etc. They also be often masked as back-handed compliments that compliment you, but bashes the community you belong to. They can cause people to feel slightly uncomfortable. Nonetheless, whether intentional or not, microaggressions are not cool and can cause a lot of damage. Let’s take a look at some variations of microaggressions and what they look like.

Racism	Sexism	Homophobia
You don’t talk like a black person.	Act more like a lady.	It’s just a phase.
You must be good at math.	Women are bad drivers.	You don’t act gay.
Are you the new diversity hire?	Stop being so emotional.	Who’s the man/woman in the relationship?
You all look alike.	Men don’t cry.	You’re too pretty to be gay.
Can I touch your hair?		What are you?
You’re pretty for a black girl.

Microaggressions can also be found in the classroom. According to Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D., these are the microaggressions to watch out for in the classrooms:

 Failing to learn to pronounce or continuing to mispronounce the names of students after they
have corrected you.
 Scheduling tests and project due dates on religious or cultural holidays.
 Disregarding religious traditions or their details. (Ex. Impacts of fasting)
 Setting low expectations for students from particular groups, neighborhoods, or feeder
patterns.
 Calling on, engaging and validating one gender, class, or race of students while ignoring other
students during class.
 Assigning student tasks or roles that reinforce particular gender roles or don’t allow all students
flexibility across roles and responses.
 Anticipating students’ emotional responses based on gender, sexual orientation, race or
ethnicity.
 Using inappropriate humor in class that degrades students from different groups.
 Expressing racially charged political opinions in class assuming that the targets of those opinions
do not exist in class.
 Using the term “illegals” to reference undocumented students.
 Hosting debates in class that place students from groups who may represent a minority opinion
in class in a difficult position.
 Singling students out in class because of their backgrounds.
 Expecting students of any particular group to ‘represent’ the perspectives of others of their race,
gender, etc. in class discussions or debates.
 Denying the experiences of students by questioning the credibility and validity of their stories.
 Assigning class projects or creating classroom or school procedures that are heterosexist, sexist,
racist, or promote other oppressions, even inadvertently.
 Using sexist language.
 Using heteronormative metaphors or examples in class.
 Assuming the gender of any student.
 Continuing to misuse pronouns even after a student, transgender or not, indicates their
preferred gender pronoun.
 Assigning projects that ignore differences in socioeconomic class status and inadvertently
penalize students with fewer financial resources.
 Excluding students from accessing student activities due to high financial costs.
 Assuming all students have access to and are proficient in the use of computers and applications
for communications about school activities and academic work.
 Assuming that students of particular ethnicities must speak another language or must not speak
English.
 Complimenting non-white students on their use of “good English.”
 Discouraging students from working on projects that explore their own social identities.
 Asking people with hidden disabilities to identify themselves in class.
 Forcing students with non‐obvious disabilities to “out” themselves or discuss them publically.
 Ignoring student‐to‐student microaggressions, even when the interaction is not course‐related.
 Making assumptions about students and their backgrounds.
 Featuring pictures of students of only one ethnicity or gender on the school website.
 Having students engage in required reading where the protagonists are always white

Now that you know exactly what microaggressions are, I’m sure majority of you can say you’ve experienced it at least once. So, how do you react the next time someone hits you with one? How you respond is up to you. You can either let it go if you decide it isn’t that big of a deal or if you feel the person meant no harm or you can decide to address it. If you do decide to address it, you have the power to decide how and how much time you want to spend on it. You can simply tell them not to do that anymore or you can decide to challenge and educate them. The point is to not allow these microaggressions to consume you and take up your life, but to use them as a teaching point especially in a time when race relations and conversations are so pivotal.