online school: a reflection
This year the kids left school for March Break and never went back.
When online school started it was a whirlwind at first trying to sort out technology. Did everyone have access to what they needed? Who had to be connected to the home printer? Are you clear on what you need to do? Can our internet bandwidth handle everyone online at the same time?! We figured out new routines. Learned to work in the same space together and it seemed to run okay.
I thought (perhaps naïvely) it would be temporary. A month maybe at most. A month turned into two and ended up being the rest of the school year. My older kids go to a school that was able to pivot quickly and get online school up and running relatively seamlessly. My youngest son’s school took much longer and his experience paled in comparison to his older brothers.
My older two boys have been done school for almost two weeks now and my youngest finished today. We all learned a lot during the last term of school. And, while there was some learning from a curriculum perspective, the greatest growth has come from the ability to adapt in the face of uncertainty, understanding the importance of relationships and that informal “hallway” conversations play a key role in development in schools.
Relationships are key to success in any part of our life. And it is much easier to build a relationship in person than it is online. For kids, and less mature learners, this is especially true. I observed that the classes where my kids already had a good relationship with their teacher continued relatively smoothly. Where the relationship had been rocky before at-home learning there was little motivation to show up and put the effort in.
The informal learning nature of in-person school was lost when things moved online. Interactions with peers and teachers were harder and took planning to engage. If you got behind in class you were not able to easily see what your neighbouring classmate was doing to catch up. And, there weren’t any hallway interactions with teachers or peers. Online school is all business all the time with little opportunity for casual encounters to learn, share or just to have fun.
At the heart of it all, the abrupt online learning experience was less about academics and more so about adaptability and developing skills for independent learning. With one of my boys in particular, I worked on checklists and alarm reminders to help keep him on track. We reconfigured home workspaces and focused on daily routines. But, it was a struggle. Kids who are relatively independent did fine in an online environment. However, kids who struggle with organization, self-direction and who rely on more informal relationships have fallen behind.
Moving into the summer break, we continue to face uncertainty about what school will look like come fall. And, while I am grateful for the lessons of the past few months, our kids need to be back in school. I was encouraged to see the recent report from Sick Kids recommending that kids return in full to classrooms in the Fall. We cannot yet gauge the longer-term mental health impacts of online learning and isolation from peer groups but I fear they will be significant. This video, by a talented student from The Etobicoke School for The Arts, is a raw illustration of isolation felt in online learning.
If kids aren’t back in school come September, educators, parents and students need to ensure that there is a focus on developing ways to ensure that informal relationships and casual interactions can be re-created as much as possible in an online environment. In my experience, this is a key marker of success.
In the meantime, as we move into the summer break, I am happy to have a pause from Google sites, Google classroom and basically all things Google for the next couple of months. While I know that through tough times comes the greatest growth, I can’t help but be nostalgic for memories of kids walking to school with backpacks full and the air filled with laugher and non-stop chatter.
For now, though, I wait. And smile as I remember.
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