Online Learning: Scenario Reflection

For the past century education has remained largely unchanged in our society - the traditional classroom is in a brick and mortar building, closed off from the outside world, with one teacher and between 25-30 students at a time.  However, in recent years, the standards have begun to change with the advent of online learning.  No longer are students bound to traditional pencil, paper, and textbooks of the past.  Today, there are a multitude of learning environments and choices for a less traditional approach to the educational experience.  Unfortunately, with change comes new challenges that we must consider as well when creating the ideal learning environment for our students, below I attempt to answer some common scenarios facing teachers and administrators in the online educational experience today.

Scenario 1:

• You're a rural district with only a few hundred students total. A child wants to take courses like calculus, but they cannot feasibly be offered by your high school.

Whether they are in rural or urban settings today, Michigan has put provisions in place that require schools to offer courses to students online when they cannot be offered in the classroom.  My school is equipped to handle these changes, however I question if every school is currently able to handle this problem.  Unfortunately not all schools have access to the same level of resources and updated equipment to provide students to access the materials they would need to take an online course on their own such as this.  In general, I think the school should do everything in their power to ensure that a student in this scenario is able to take the advanced course rather than to sit and lose interest in material they are already comfortable with.  The other concern we must consider is whether the school can find a staff member to support the learner in their independent journey.  Since schools should help all of their learners succeed, this should be a primary focus for a school that encounters this issue, and the administration should do everything in their power to support a young learner.

• You're a principal of a school. An overbearing parent comes to you. Their first son had Mr. Siko for chemistry and hated him. He's the only chemistry teacher, and now their younger son has him. They want to pull him out and have him take it online. Can you prevent this? Should you prevent this?

I would support my teacher and deny the parent access to an online course in this circumstance.  As a principal, I would do my best to explain that learning is a different experience for everyone, even within the same family, and that we will do everything in our power to support the incoming student and to help them find success.  However, there is no requirement for the school to pay for a separate class if a seat is available in a currently held class by a certified instructor.

• A child comes into your class, having transferred from a 'cyberschool'. It is clear the quality was subpar. Any of this child's standardized test scores this year are tied to your performance evaluation under the new teacher evaluation guidelines.

I would do my best to identify my new student's strengths and needs, and I would then attempt to bring instruction to their level by offering supports along the way to help them to succeed.  I would work closely with the parents and my support staff to ensure that the new learner was engaged in class and able to complete the work, and I would work hard to support their progress, regardless of the grade they would cost me later.  Teaching can never be about some points on a scoresheet for our success or we will never reach the child anyway, we need to show that we care and do our best to support our learners and everything will work itself out.

• I am a teacher whose district is embracing online learning. It is attracting many students from other districts, and this generates extra revenue (students = $$). I am asked to be a 'facilitator' for these students, who are not required to attend during the school day. I am not given extra release time for this. 

This would be difficult as a teacher to attempt to maintain my current workload as well as to teach additional students beyond the traditional school environment.  I would likely first work to adapt my instruction so that every student taking my class in-person or online could have a similar experience in my classroom.  Next, I would develop a plan with my online learners that would involve significant lessons to encourage them to participate and buy-in to my content.  Once I had a good control on my situation, I would refer to my union manual and probably talk with administration about what is acceptable under my current contract and we would develop a plan together on how to make my role most effective for the students I teach, inside and outside of the classroom.

• I am a 12th grade student who was diagnosed with leukemia the summer before my senior year. I am unable to attend a full day of school while receiving treatment. I want to graduate on time with my friends.

Students have every right to still take classes and learn, whether they are able to physically enter the building or not.  The school would provide an online learning program as well as a support system for a teacher to check-in on the student's work and a counselor to keep apprised of their progress and to further organize and develop the system of check-ins and support.  Equivocal classes would be offered compared to the typical content, in order to ensure that the student was able to learn and graduate successfully from our school district.

Do you think schools are equipped to handle these changes?  Has your school/district been public about any changes they've made to curriculum and instruction, or have any changes gone unnoticed?  How is your school handling this (consider asking your administrator to see how s/he is imagining the larger picture)?  

I do not think that all schools are equipped to handle these changes, but I think that the majority of schools today are prepared for these circumstances to some level.  It is important for our legislature to consider these new learning environments, and to appropriately fund school districts in order to accommodate some of the additional costs that might arise from these unique circumstances.  Our school district has not been public about online learning, most likely because we are currently a very successful district, and it would feel counter-intuitive to support a system of learning that we do not currently need to offer on a grand scale.  This is mostly because we still have enough financial health to still offer the vast majority of classes that a student may be interested in pursuing.  However, on a case-by-case basis, our district has opened up to new opportunities offered to students who wish to pursue a course not traditionally offered in our buildings.  After talking with my administrator, it was confirmed that the current belief is that to make this public would only lead to further headaches and challenges they are not interested in pursuing on a larger scale.