The shift to remote learning over a weekend in March meant Manchester had to make sure every student had a computer to use for schoolwork.
Six months later, it’s still a work in progress, said Stephen Cross, the school district’s chief information officer.
At the beginning of 2020, Manchester was a “two-to-one” district — two students to one computer, he said. Cross had replaced thousands of outdated laptops before the pandemic and has purchased thousands more, but some students are still waiting.
“We have 3,100 Chromebooks on order, and we have no idea when we’re going to get those,” he said.
Some schools had a surplus of Chromebooks, so Cross engineered a way to loan some of those schools’ devices to other schools.
“That’s how we’ve been getting devices into the hands of families, moving things around,” Cross said. “We had to scrounge. It was ‘do whatever we can,’ to
Schools that rely on remote learning during the pandemic are trying to ensure that all kids have the devices and internet bandwidth they need. While important, it takes more than everyone having comparable equipment and working Wi-Fi for all children to get an equal shot.
In my new book based on the sociological research I conducted at three middle schools before the COVID-19 pandemic, I explain how even if all students could get the same hardware and software, it would fail to even the academic playing field.
I saw many technologies used in unequal ways. And I observed teachers responding differently to students’ digital skills depending on the race or ethnicity and economic status of most of their students.
Learning from digital play
Previous research by a team of University of California researchers found that young people gain basic digital skills just from playing with friends online. This includes the
The shift to remote learning over a weekend in March meant Manchester had to make sure every student had a computer to use for schoolwork.
Six months later, it’s still a work in progress, said Stephen Cross, the school district’s chief information officer.
At the beginning of 2020, Manchester was a “two-to-one” district — two students to one computer, he said. Cross had replaced thousands of outdated laptops before the pandemic and has purchased thousands more, but some students are still waiting.
“We have 3,100 Chromebooks on order, and we have no idea when we’re going to get those,” he said.
Some schools had a surplus of Chromebooks, so Cross engineered a way to loan some of those schools’ devices to other schools.
“That’s how we’ve been getting devices into the hands of families, moving things around,” Cross said. “We had to scrounge. It was ‘do whatever we can,’ to
With thousands of students and teachers online this semester, technology problems can quickly lead to a host of issues for students trying to access academic instruction and teachers leading classrooms.
Rutherford County Schools Director Bill Spurlock talks about distance learning
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Nashville-based global tech company Asurion launched its own “Tech Sanity Hotline” this week to help ensure teachers, students and parents can stay connected.
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Many students in Rutherford County have been learning remotely from home since the school year began.
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Back to school: From home schooling to co-ops, students are learning in new ways
Roughly 48% of Murfreesboro City Schools students are participating in distance learning until October. Grades 3-6 were required to learn from home unless an exemption was approved. For Rutherford County Schools, about 20,000 students in
