07-11-2020, 05:52 PM
Canvas is just a shell. It's a Learning Management System. It doesn't teach anything. It's not a program. It's a way to organize the "stuff" for online teaching. You will still see a hodgepodge of stuff. Only now, the hodgepodge will be "organized" into modules. Unless the district has undertaken a fairly robust inservice program for teachers in how to successfully transition to a virtual teaching setting, there won't be much change, and there'll be more teachers who throw their hands up in the air.
In general, it'd take at least a few weeks in the summer of fairly rigorous in-service training just to get up to speed on how to use a LMS. That's not delivering instruction, it's just learning how to use the system. Then there's the actual teaching strategies like making videos for instruction, holding Zoom sessions successfully, helping students that don't get it, students that need more time, and students that need to move more deeply into the material, collecting work, grading and returning work, and all the stuff that goes with that.
It's not likely that much of the online teaching you see this fall will look any different than it did in the spring - schools and teachers just haven't had enough time to relearn the dance and practice it yet. That's why the big push for back in school is so strong. No need to relearn anything if everything's face-to-face. But unless there are significant safeguards, any teacher who goes back into a classroom right now is - seriously – putting their life on the line. In some cases, for about $125 a day. How many of them are going to decide that "the kids" just aren't worth that risk? Probably not that many, but for every one of them that does, it'll mean a less qualified person in their place - and that's a real problem.
In general, it'd take at least a few weeks in the summer of fairly rigorous in-service training just to get up to speed on how to use a LMS. That's not delivering instruction, it's just learning how to use the system. Then there's the actual teaching strategies like making videos for instruction, holding Zoom sessions successfully, helping students that don't get it, students that need more time, and students that need to move more deeply into the material, collecting work, grading and returning work, and all the stuff that goes with that.
It's not likely that much of the online teaching you see this fall will look any different than it did in the spring - schools and teachers just haven't had enough time to relearn the dance and practice it yet. That's why the big push for back in school is so strong. No need to relearn anything if everything's face-to-face. But unless there are significant safeguards, any teacher who goes back into a classroom right now is - seriously – putting their life on the line. In some cases, for about $125 a day. How many of them are going to decide that "the kids" just aren't worth that risk? Probably not that many, but for every one of them that does, it'll mean a less qualified person in their place - and that's a real problem.