Resources for Remote Learning
As I write this, every school in the United States
is closed to classroom instruction. Many states have given up entirely
on bringing students back this academic year. At least one state
(Washington) is now warning its schools to prepare for closures that
will potentially last into the fall of the 2020-2021 academic year.
We’re in this for the foreseeable future.
Remote learning is the order of the day. But approaches to remote
learning vary widely. In some cases, teachers are in their living rooms
delivering instruction on their 2000s-era webcams. In others, they’re
in school broadcast facilities using high-end AV gear. In all cases,
student learning isn’t what it once was.
Think of what students are lacking and how uneven learning must be
right now as students take classes remotely (or, in some cases, merely work
on packets their schools sent home with them when schools were still treating
this COVID-19 situation like a snow day or extended spring break).
In classrooms, every component is designed to enhance learning.
Flooring, ceilings, walls and digital equipment were tuned to assist
with listening. Windows and lighting fixtures were designed to support
learning by creating environments in which students could take
in the material more readily. HVAC and filtration systems created
environments that promoted comfort and well-being.
What do students have now? We don’t really know beyond two
simple facts: They don’t have a classroom, and the quality of their
at-home environments varies from student to student, from extremely
luxurious to extremely impoverished — in terms of technology level,
network quality, audio quality, lighting, comfort, personalized support,
cleanliness, health/nutrition and even safety (violence, abuse).
All of these raise critical equity flags.
Now more than ever education institutions are in desperate need
of support to attempt to bring a higher quality of learning to students
locked out of their classrooms for the duration.
Many resources are available for that, including our sites
spaces4learning.com, thejournal.com and campustechnology.com.
(Check out out listing of hundreds of free resources for schools here: https://tinyurl.com/w4777pc.) However, many are no longer viable for
now. Conventions, conferences, summits, in-person demonstrations —
essentially all hands-on resources are gone at least until the fall.
We’re also offering resources to replace in-person events.
We have several upcoming webcasts and virtual summits, including
two new one-day virtual summits on distance learning in early
May, one for K–12 and one for higher ed. And at this very moment
we’re organizing our first “DemoCast” May 6, which will be a unique
opportunity for school, college and university staff and faculty to
get as hands-on as you can get right now with products designed to
support education through this crisis.
Hopefully working together, with resources like these, we’ll be
able to make this situation a little better for those who are being
impacted the most — the 56.6 million students displaced by the
COVID-19 crisis.
This article originally appeared in the March/April 2020 issue of Spaces4Learning.