Reply to My two cents why Code Purple was never going to fly . . .

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My two cents why Code Purple was never going to fly, with just a day’s notice to staff and students:

One, there has been no significant investment in training or retraining how to use zoom or canvas to anyone, really, whether it's teachers or students in the district, even though it should have been built-in the first month of school and reiterated before the start of the winter season;

Two, the majority of elementary schools went to a cart system, which makes it incredibly time-consuming to remove not just the chromebooks but dismantle the cart just to get to their chargers, of which some might be broken or defective; (Never mind the idiocy of taking apart the carts, only to put them together the following Monday?) (And whom would pull this off, realistically? ITSSs are shared and stretched thin among three to four schools, already.);

Three, to build on the above, two months ago, MCPS indicated that they were effectively out of chargers, and that the financial responsibility would now fall onto the individual schools. (A budget freeze announced two Fridays ago was just an additional slap to the face.);

Four, when students came back from the pandemic, most of the laptop bags were thrown out and recycled, as they were downright disgusting and in no shape for further use. They were not replaced. So the chromebooks would have to go home into their backpacks;

Five, someone on DCUM commented that the schools could simply send the chromebooks home, without their charging cables, as their stated battery life was eight hours. Please note that that was when they were brand-new, not four years old, and this also assumes that they were being plugged in, constantly. (Ha.);

Six, the Dell teacher laptops that would be expected to pull off zoom are straight-up POSs. So many have failed for various reasons just over the last few months that a lot of people are frustrated. I can't imagine using them;

Seven, the total confusion and lack of communication or even miscommunication over what a Code Purple was, how it would be implemented, and more was simply monumentally screwed up. The expectations and conditions to trigger such a code should have been codified and publicized to the entire community way ahead of time;

This is just a few of the things that naturally occurred to me. (If there’s others, you’re welcome to chime in!) Bottom line: nothing was learned from the pandemic.

There were, however, some easy actions that could have been taken to offset some of this:

one, such as regular use or formal integration of zoom / canvas throughout the school year;
two, transitioning from closed carts to something a bit more flexible, like open-air charging stations; 
three, updating the Acer 740s to Google Flex to keep them modern and useful, in case the school system decided to send home relatively-disposable laptops
four, set into motion exactly how and when a Code Purple comes into play; and so much more.

It’s not rocket science.[/quote]

It's all McKnight's fault as usual!!  Well, I hate virtual but do enjoy complaining.[/quote]

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