Distance learning isn’t working

image by Tim Gouw

Getting past the distractions

I get this update from the NY Times each morning from David Leonhardt. It's called The Morning. A lot of this material is unsettling. The first briefing was about police brutality. It's common, and always has been. In the past the police lied about it. They're not getting away with it anymore because of cellphone cameras. The next two stories were about defunding the police and New York emerging from the lockdown.

The final piece among the top three was about distance learning. In short, it isn't working. Students are falling behind. A lack of interaction and the inability to use visual clues make this kind of learning a lot harder.

Education experts believe that distance learning in most school districts is not working and that students are falling behind at alarming rates. “We know this isn’t a good way to teach,” a seventh-grade teacher in Colorado said. Black, Hispanic and low-income students are falling behind the fastest, research suggests.

“The richest and poorest parents are spending about the same amount of hours on remote school,” Dana Goldstein, a Times reporter who has written a book on teaching, told us. But “wealthier parents are inevitably able to provide more books and supplies at home, more quiet space, educational toys and often more knowledge of the curriculum.” More high-income school districts are also providing strong remote instruction, rather than basic worksheet-like activities.

I realize I'm only an instructor, but I'm best at what I do when I can engage the student directly. That's not happening on-line. There's no real feedback.