The downside of modern technology
There is clearly a downside to modern technology in education. You'd think having a school district that has the latest in computer technology would be a plus. But what happens when the teachers rely so heavily on the technology that they can't teach without it? My daughter found out today at her middle school -- apparently you do nothing all day
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No email? Try phone trees. (Well, unless the phone system is one that's dependent on electricity, which is not uncommon these days.)
Yearbook you can't do much about. Science class? Draw a table on a piece of paper and write the numbers down. Geography? Why is their fricking test on a PC? That requires net access? How secure is that?
And that poor Algebra teacher who would be 'inconvenience[d]' by having to rewrite out material on the board? Yet they can use an overhead projector? PULL THE SCREEN DOWN OVER THE WRITING YOU DON'T WANT THE KIDS TO SEE BEFORE THE QUIZ, THEN ROLL IT BACK UP FOR AFTER THE QUIZ. I would seriously complain if that were one of my teachers.
The whiteboard thing is not new; they were starting to do that in the schools around here due to allergy/lung disease concerns as early as the late 80s.
Now the sticking point in my school district if there were no power at all would've been the inability for the cafeteria to be run, due to the local regs. What would've happened for us, if they didn't want to burn a snow day, would be to have everyone show up to school, go to first period, go to second period, then send everyone to the first lunch period, offer nominal backup food to claim lunch had been served (cold box lunches), which no-one ever actually bought, then load everyone back on the buses and send them home.
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Or take verbal attendance from whatever printed roll they received at the beginning of the year?
Except that class rosters, at least in the districts where I've taught, almost NEVER stay the same through a school year, or even a semester. New kids come in; other kids leave; kids switch classes. My classes are different now from what they were on Jan 27th, the first day of the new semester, and they're WAY different from the first of the year. When the server's down, I usually have kids write down their names, the way you suggested.
Geography? Why is their fricking test on a PC? That requires net access? How secure is that?
We use a web-based test-creation program called Moodle, that's designed to be used by schools. It's actually associated with our student records/gradebook/etc. program, which is also web-based and statewide. It's EXTREMELY secure; in fact, our new State Superintendent of Public Instruction is planning to put parts of our Big State Testtm online to make scoring easier and cheaper. Our history and science classes use Moodle a lot, and so do our upper-level math classes. When it works, it's VERY convenient. When the server's down, not so much, of course. Think of it as a ScanTron on steroids.
Now the sticking point in my school district if there were no power at all would've been the inability for the cafeteria to be run, due to the local regs.
Was it power? I thought it was just the internet that was down.
And I'm ready to smack that Algebra teacher. Seriously. S/he might not have had a screen, I guess (esp. if using a SmartBoard), but why not use butcher paper? Write on it and tape it up, then take it down again. Not difficult.
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I use (and love!) Moodle for my class websites, assignment collection, and gradebook, but I don't use it much for testing. (Possibly in part because I don't give that many tests.) If you don't mind me asking, what do you use to stop a kid taking an online test from surfing to another website and looking up the answers? I don't think Moodle itself has security against that (that I'm aware of), but maybe you're using it in conjunction with another piece of software? We've used Dyknow for that in the past, but I haven't done it much myself because I don't give very many tests anyway.
I'll also note that on principle I agree with you regarding the Algebra teacher, but I would be hard-pressed to find a screen (we just project directly on the whiteboard when necessary) or butcher paper in my school, especially in a hurry. But that doesn't mean I couldn't just suck it up, erase everything, and write it again. Not fun, but not cruel and unusual, either.
As for power... I think you're right, in this case it was just internet. If there had been no electricity in the school there would probably be bigger problems (especially in winter!). We had three "snow" days last fall after the hurricane because we had no electricity. The reason we couldn't just have school anyway? No toilets. Apparently the toilets on the second floor of our building use some sort of electric water pump. Who knew?
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As for the Algebra teacher, the funny thing is that she's a fabulous teacher otherwise and has done a lot towards making my non-math-loving daughter really enjoy her class. But most of the teachers in that school are very young -- early to mid 20's young. Very energetic, with lots of enthusiasm and passion and great ideas ... but clearly no idea how to work without the technology they have always used in their classes!
I'd hope that if the computers were down for longer than a day, she'd be able to adjust and be prepared to write on the board. But fortunately, I just got an email saying that the computers were back up in the district as of this evening, so they'll be able to go back to their modern ways. *g*
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All of their tests in Geography have been online ... perhaps through Blackboard? Or another service like this. It's the kind of test where you fill in the answers on the screen, then you find out your score immediately upon finishing the exam. So they probably didn't have hard copies to pass out, without being able to access the file in the first place to print.
No email? Try phone trees.
I did actually get a phone call from my son's elementary teacher for this exact reason. She'd sent out the February computer lab volunteer schedule the week before, but hadn't been able to access any of the parent responses, so she was making phone calls to verify who was coming. The irony was, of course, if the WiFi wasn't back up by Tuesday, we wouldn't be holding computer lab anyway since they do it all via laptops in the classroom.
As for the Algebra teacher, the funny thing is that she's a fabulous teacher otherwise and has done a lot towards making my non-math-loving daughter really enjoy her class. But most of the teachers in that school are very young -- early to mid 20's young. Very energetic, with lots of enthusiasm and passion and great ideas ... but clearly no idea how to work without the technology they have always used in their classes!
I'll tell you, the whole thing was really eye-opening.
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