Republished from A Coloradoan In Education. Published 3/17/20.
https://acoloradoanineducation.blogspot.com/2020/03/covid-19s-impact-on-education.html
Right now education on all levels is feeling the impact of the coronavirus. Grade schools are taking extended spring breaks and higher education is doing longer breaks and switching to online formats. As of today many schools are also canceling their graduation ceremonies. One interesting thing that Japanese elementary students are doing is they set up their own graduation ceremony in Minecraft (Wilson). Schools and people will need to be creative during this time to meet all of their different needs. These school closures are also impacting parents and not everyone has backup child care.
At the same time it is understandable for these closures to happen if you look at both health advisories and how education works in our country. Classrooms are normally small and packed with students and these changes are needed in order to protect everyone. Most desks are spaced only far enough away from each other to allow people to walk past and most student’s do not have their own desk, but have several other students sharing the same space at different times of the day. I will fully admit that I have worked in the private for profit education industry at online only schools. I understand that for traditional schools thinking about switching over to online only can be scary, but it has been done and needs to be done with the current health issues. One of the key things is using any existing online classroom to the fullest.
There are many different classroom platforms that schools can use. Some of the most popular are D2L, Canvas, and Blackboard. During the changeover, professors/teachers that have already started to integrate online education will have the easiest time with the change. Blackboard has seen a massive jump in downloads of its app and is doing what it can with video tutorials (Blakemore). This switch over with the help of technology could be a big help slowing the virus, but it can also be hurtful as well. Here in Colorado a lot of our students do not have access to computers or the internet. Many students in DPS are on free or reduced lunch and this more than likely coincides with them being able to get access to their school work. Another impact on this is that many if not most libraries are also closed right now. The other option would be going to restaurants, but with the governor closing all dine in at restaurants yesterday this has also been stopped. This means that if students are lucky enough to have a laptop computer their only option would be to go to stores like Walmart or sit outside in their cars at locations that have free wifi for their customers.
Extended spring breaks and the technology issues are not the only negative impact that students are facing. It is also getting to be that time of year when high school students need to take the ACT and SAT. If students are not able to sit for these tests or prepare for them, this could impact them being able to get into college. Some colleges have started to look at multiple measures when trying to see if a student should be given admission to their school. One of these is high school GPA (which the virus could also affect). The problem is that not all schools are doing this and most still rely on test scores.
The virus is not only impacting traditional education venues, but non-traditional as well. Both the Denver Museum and Denver Zoo has also announced that they will be closed until future notice. When you add this to the closure of the local libraries, even self-education is getting smaller and smaller. There are ways around this as well. One is that Scholastic is offering free online courses for kids. The even have developed material for kids on the coronavirus, check out: http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/press-release/scholastic-creates-free-open-access-digital-hub-help-keep-students-learning-while-scho .
Some museums also offer virtual tours : https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours .
For older learners you can also check out Harvard’s free courses: https://online-learning.harvard.edu/trending
So as we start to settle in to see if we can wait out this virus, I challenge all of you to keep your education going.
Works Cited
Blakemore, Lee. “Blackboard works together with the educational community to deliver continuity of education during coronavirus.” Education Dive. Accessed March 17, 2020.
Wilson, Scott. “Japanese students hold graduation ceremony in Minecraft amid school cancellation.” Sora News 24. Accessed March 17, 2020.
