NYC Educator: On Remote Learning--Show Me Their Faces

NYC Educator: On Remote Learning--Show Me Their Faces

On Remote Learning--Show Me Their Faces

Remote learning is a big topic these days. I'm always reading about it. Not only that, I've been doing it for three months. WSJ and the Post say it's awful, though I don't remember them ever saying that about the cyber charters that infest these United States. They're pretty well-known as simply awful. A lot of them are scammers who get paid for students who never show up.

Now I'm personally familiar with at least some students who never show up. Starting next Wednesday they become my primary professional focus. I'm not overly optimistic about the prospects of most students currently failing my classes. They seem to be failing all their others as well. I mean, I'll make myself available, but some of these students have been unreachable for weeks. I'm going to focus today on the students who've passed, which is almost all those who've been showing up to my Zoom classes.

Here's my big complaint--I can't see them. I have no idea what on earth they're doing behind those avatars. Are they listening? Are they playing video games on their phones? Have they muted themselves so they can watch video? Are they sleeping? If so, are they even sleeping alone? Who knows? Certainly not me. They could be doing anything. If they were in my classroom, I'd walk over and orient them one way or another.

Actually, if students were showing their faces, I'd feel confident giving assessments. If I could actually watch them in real time, and if I could see what they were writing in Google Classroom, I'd be confident enough to believe it was them, or at least most of them, actually doing the work. Earlier this morning I gave students credit for homework that I'd entirely gone over in class. Now some of them know the material, and I know they do. At least one of them doesn't. I have been taking ten points off for late homework, but honestly that student deserved a zero.

The student I just mentioned, and several others, come to my online class most or all of the time. However, when I call on them, they don't respond. Now there could be a lot of reasons for that. Once, I called a student, she didn't answer, and when I said her name again she wrote in the chat that she CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: On Remote Learning--Show Me Their Faces