07-11-2020, 07:05 PM
bfd wrote:
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.
One of the teachers we know will be homeschooling her daughter I think. Not returning to her job.
... I work with instructors who teach to adult learners. We're in the process of breaking away from a partner company who controls our LMS (a combination of Drupal front door tied to Moodle). It's trash. It has so many problems, and the service from this company is horrible. But they possess ALL of our data due to a miserable CEO who made this deal a few years go. He also literally helped create a competitor by his stupidity of shitcanning our previous partner, who was great.
When covid hit and the various universities and training center partners lost their mind, they begged us to let our content be taught virtually. And so we quickly gave a few one-off exceptions so that cohorts could be closed out.
That begat an "interim virtual" model for one core product, with training and materials ... and then instructors mainly listening not to us (who grant them license to teach ... ) but to the people PAYING them to teach, with a wild west idea for how may sessions, length of sessions, sessions per day and so on. It's been a pain in the ass trying to reel everyone in so that our brand, marketplace position and reputation, and oh yeah, the STUDENTS are not harmed.
We will not have anything concrete and non-interim in place at work until 2021 ... it takes a long time to adapt to virtual instruction AND it cannot be a full substitute regardless. I had someone from one of our chapters ask me point-blank why one of our qualified instructors simply can't turn on the computer, push a few buttons and teach online.
We make chapters and other partners sign a contract --- the regular one that only addresses in-class courses --- that includes examples of acceptable seating arrangements, # of students per table and so on. It's got nothing to do with safety, it's about ensuring the right learning environment. So we care about that, but this yahoo (a non-instructor ... ) wondered what's the "big deal" about switching to virtual.