There's a 2-Hr Distance Learning Delay Tomorrow, Wed. 4/15

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible that they didn't upgrade whatever IT things needs to happen to let 100,000 people log in at once during the past five weeks when nothing was happening?

It seems like nothing is what FCPS excels at. I'm sure no one is going to own up to the fact that the first two weeks of leave for teachers was a disastrous calls and that time should have been spent getting feedback from teachers and getting the technology issues taken care of. People have mentioned teachers not having their laptop as an excuse for teachers being allowed to do nothing for those two weeks. My DC logged on yesterday on her iPad. I've done zoom on my phone. I doubt there were any teachers who didn't have access to a tablet or a smartphone to get started on virtual meetings about technology and how distance learning should work. Five weeks in and we're still in limbo while other districts immediately rolled out distance learning, even if not perfect. FIVE weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible that they didn't upgrade whatever IT things needs to happen to let 100,000 people log in at once during the past five weeks when nothing was happening?

Imagine the expenditure.

You think the current bus fleet (which runs 3or 4 trips each morning and afternoon) is expensive? Imagine tripling it. Now think about quadrupling the network infrastructure for one quarter of one school year. Does that make sense?

So you're saying no distance learning for the rest of the year because FCPS can't afford the technology? Or are you saying it is expensive, FCPS dragged their feet but finally decided to pay, and it's still a catastrophe now because no one in charge had a real plan for this because they were busy giving time off and busy doing nothing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible that they didn't upgrade whatever IT things needs to happen to let 100,000 people log in at once during the past five weeks when nothing was happening?

Imagine the expenditure.

You think the current bus fleet (which runs 3or 4 trips each morning and afternoon) is expensive? Imagine tripling it. Now think about quadrupling the network infrastructure for one quarter of one school year. Does that make sense?

Tripling the network capacity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did your kids really just start online learning?!

I know, right? We're in western VA and my kids are almost done with all their spring quarter homework online. They've been working hard for the last month. The teachers just uploaded all the assignments to a portal and it's been fine. Zero problems. My oldest (HS) has been going to class online for one of her classes and the kids are all well-behaved, no problems. She is prepping for her AP exams that she'll take over her school-issued laptop next month. FCPS has big problems.

Don't know how many students your school system has in West VA but FCPS alone has 190,000 students plus 16,000 teachers!

Just like your smart daughter, AP kids are not having problems either. We're a big county that's alll!

Not enough of a reason for moving to "West VA"....Thanks though!

Please feel free to keep your provincial NOVA attitude. It keeps you from discovering the terrific school systems we have out here that continue to function well online as I write this post. PS: letting each teacher post a group of assignments online isn't very hard. It isn't a matter of school district size. It is a matter of competence, and shedding the ego and analysis paralysis to make stuff happen. Good luck.

This. At this point FCPS has no excuse for not following LCPS’ lead.

[Anonymous]

I heard Blackboard isn’t working for college students either, so it might just be too many people trying to get on one website. Not sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible that they didn't upgrade whatever IT things needs to happen to let 100,000 people log in at once during the past five weeks when nothing was happening?

Imagine the expenditure.

You think the current bus fleet (which runs 3or 4 trips each morning and afternoon) is expensive? Imagine tripling it. Now think about quadrupling the network infrastructure for one quarter of one school year. Does that make sense?

So you're saying no distance learning for the rest of the year because FCPS can't afford the technology? Or are you saying it is expensive, FCPS dragged their feet but finally decided to pay, and it's still a catastrophe now because no one in charge had a real plan for this because they were busy giving time off and busy doing nothing?

I'm saying there needs to be a quick, easy, and secure fix but one of those will get dropped. They already tried one fix and it didn't work. They'll have to find another fix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible that they didn't upgrade whatever IT things needs to happen to let 100,000 people log in at once during the past five weeks when nothing was happening?

Imagine the expenditure.

You think the current bus fleet (which runs 3or 4 trips each morning and afternoon) is expensive? Imagine tripling it. Now think about quadrupling the network infrastructure for one quarter of one school year. Does that make sense?

FCPS doesn't need to expand network capacity for most of this, unless they're hosting Blackboard internally, in which case whoever made that call needs to be keel-hauled in the Potomac this evening.