Launching online learning at L.A. schools during coronavirus is ‘akin to landing on the moon’
In a sign that the digital divide may be narrowing among Los Angeles public high school students who have lacked computer or internet access, teachers have connected with 96% of their pupils, leaving about 5,000 still unaccounted for, L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner said Monday.
The school district also has provided computers to middle and elementary school students, and has been so focused on swiftly distributing the devices that it does not yet have a firm count of how many have been given out, the superintendent said.
A week ago, about 15,000 high school students were missing online or had not connected with their teachers since the school district closed campuses on March 16 and began the challenging move to online learning.
“Even in the best of times, launching a comprehensive online learning program in the nation’s second-largest school district would be a monumental task, akin to landing on the moon,” said Beutner in a video update. “It would take years of careful planning, investment, training and engagement with the entire school community. During extended school closures due to the coronavirus, Los Angeles Unified is doing it in a matter of weeks, because students most in need are counting on us.”
The online sign-in numbers have been particularly low among elementary school students with just 59% logging into the district’s learning management system by Friday, the last day before spring break. But the number is difficult to interpret and does not necessarily indicate that children were not attempting schoolwork, Beutner said. Many were sent home with books and thick packets of assignments.
“Merely logging in does not tell us anything more than the student turned on their computer,” Beutner said. “The absence of a log-in, when a student is reading a book or working on a writing assignment, can leave a misleading digital footprint.”
The little ones “will miss the classroom setting the most,” he said, adding that so much of their day at a campus involved working together to solve math problems and CONTINUE READING: Coronavirus school closures grow online learning in L.A. - Los Angeles Times