Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay, online high school shill.

Yeah, Besty is that you? I don't doubt for a minute that this pro-online HS person isn't hawking his/her own wares to the DOE.

At then end of the day, we're still humans, and we learn through meaningful, hands-on, collaborative effort. Can't do that online. That's why online college degrees are junk and nobody respects them. Do we really want to make our children's HS diplomas equally valueless? This is a clear push from DeVos to destroy the public school system and turn it into a money-making venture for her cronies. At the same time, it will drive out people of means from public schools and into the Christian academies (where they can learn about Creatioism) that she favors.

I see you.

The problem is that most of the cooperative learning going on in schools is not meaningful but simply time sucks that could be taught much more efficiently through direct instruction

- A teacher

How many people here would like to be videotaped on their job, all day everyday? And then having 30+ pairs of eyes critiquing your performance?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Implementing more online learning modules are great, but the FCPS Lobby for the Low Income will whine and wail that students from low-income families simply do not have the same access to technology and time to watch lectures in the evenings as other students and on and on. Then you get into providing ipads and laptops for large swathes of students and such.

Ugh, those low income people are sooo annoying! Why don't they just go out and buy their own iPads and laptops? And let's not even get started on the complaints about how expensive internet access is!

So we should not do something that makes sense bc some people can't do it? Instead we could try focusing on how to minimize or eliminate those barriers?

Progress s so hard for some people.....

Anonymous wrote:Implementing more online learning modules are great, but the FCPS Lobby for the Low Income will whine and wail that students from low-income families simply do not have the same access to technology and time to watch lectures in the evenings as other students and on and on. Then you get into providing ipads and laptops for large swathes of students and such.

Ugh, those low income people are sooo annoying! Why don't they just go out and buy their own iPads and laptops? And let's not even get started on the complaints about how expensive internet access is!

Implementing more online learning modules are great, but the FCPS Lobby for the Low Income will whine and wail that students from low-income families simply do not have the same access to technology and time to watch lectures in the evenings as other students and on and on. Then you get into providing ipads and laptops for large swathes of students and such.

Anonymous wrote:It can, but why do we want our entire lives videotaped just for a class missed? Of course the course would change because of this. The benefits do not outweigh the problems with this idea.
[Report Post]

This is simply ignorant. Nobody has suggested "entire lives videotaped" and the proposal was much broader than simply for a "class missed". Your simplistic, dogmatic, dismissive, unhelpful, assertion that "benefits do not outweigh the problems" is ridiculous. What do you know of the teaching methods and technology that exist for teaching online? What do you know of how they have been successfully commercialized and implemented? What do you know of the results, the problems identified, the possible scope for implementation, possibilities for use in more specific teaching 'niches'? What do you know about the costs? What do you know about the legal issues? What can you foresee as possible benefits?

The answer is NOTHING< NOTHING <NOTHING. I sincerely hope that you don't have kids and don't have any role in teaching kids. Fearful, ignorant, dogmatic, non-factual assertion may make you popular among your cadre of sycophants - it is not a good approach to solving problems and making things better; or inspiring, encouraging and challenging students.

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason that so few engage in it" [i] Henry Ford>

Wow. Angry much? You've gone off the deep end. There is a difference between taping only a teacher giving a lecture or taping a lecture related to a book and taping an interactive class. Honestly do you have any kids? Classes are not lectures anymore.

It can, but why do we want our entire lives videotaped just for a class missed? Of course the course would change because of this. The benefits do not outweigh the problems with this idea.
[Report Post]

This is simply ignorant. Nobody has suggested "entire lives videotaped" and the proposal was much broader than simply for a "class missed". Your simplistic, dogmatic, dismissive, unhelpful, assertion that "benefits do not outweigh the problems" is ridiculous. What do you know of the teaching methods and technology that exist for teaching online? What do you know of how they have been successfully commercialized and implemented? What do you know of the results, the problems identified, the possible scope for implementation, possibilities for use in more specific teaching 'niches'? What do you know about the costs? What do you know about the legal issues? What can you foresee as possible benefits?

The answer is NOTHING< NOTHING <NOTHING. I sincerely hope that you don't have kids and don't have any role in teaching kids. Fearful, ignorant, dogmatic, non-factual assertion may make you popular among your cadre of sycophants - it is not a good approach to solving problems and making things better; or inspiring, encouraging and challenging students.

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason that so few engage in it" [i] Henry Ford>

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are also privacy concerns. Parents have a right to know about their child but do not have a right to know about other children. FERPA concerns.

A) The focus could be on the front/teacher.
B) the kids can "opt out" like they do with yearbook.

Frankly, I don't see why this can be done. The PP IT guy seems to recognize that it could be relatively easy. I note that one of the grades at my ES uses an app where the teacher uploads videos of the class already (at this point just activities that class has done that day). THe app was free and it has been very seamless so far. Parents and kids love it.

While I think it could be used system-wide for some of the things other posters note (taking classes at different schools), I think it could easily be implemented now so kids could have access to lessons missed due to illness. It's already being done on a teacher by teacher basis.

And as for the science-based classes, I know a lady who did a medical-based graduate degree via distance. All classes online and then partnered with a local college (in this case it would be their own HS) to do the labs. Very easy.

It can, but why do we want our entire lives videotaped just for a class missed? Of course the course would change because of this. The benefits do not outweigh the problems with this idea.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are also privacy concerns. Parents have a right to know about their child but do not have a right to know about other children. FERPA concerns.

Like I said, bureaucrats will come out of the woodwork with reasons it can't be done...bureaucratically.

How on earth would FERPA apply? FERPA addresses records. Can you cite the applicable FERPA section? Of course you can't. It doesn't apply here.

Send the FCPS bureaucrats to the local day care center or church for a lesson on the 21st century.

In today's environment, where one wrong move, one misstatement, can go viral and cost you your job? No way would any teacher want all their lectures recorded and available. It's not the technology that's the problem, it's the people.

Anonymous wrote:There are also privacy concerns. Parents have a right to know about their child but do not have a right to know about other children. FERPA concerns.

Like I said, bureaucrats will come out of the woodwork with reasons it can't be done...bureaucratically.

How on earth would FERPA apply? FERPA addresses records. Can you cite the applicable FERPA section? Of course you can't. It doesn't apply here.

Send the FCPS bureaucrats to the local day care center or church for a lesson on the 21st century.

The opposition to exploring a new idea is remarkable... with the exception of a few posters, the reflexive, negative, ignorant assertions are disheartening. Imagine that your student is faced with this kind of response to a question or insight that they suggest in class. Is the commitment to the status quo so firm that fair consideration of alternatives and possible improvements is out of bounds? The technology and software to provide alternative instruction services are changing rapidly and those who can adopt and adapt will benefit. I thought that the purportedly 'well educated' parents and educators frequenting this forum might have an interest to consider a new approach and even come up with and contribute creative ways to implement and expand the uses. Instead, we've heard simplistic objections, demands for "more pay", unsubstantiated claims about the technology and concerns about 'privacy'. It's the attitude of all these harpies that is most dispiriting - "the nattering nabobs of negativism". What happened to the creative spirit - to innovation? We claim to be trying to instill this in our kids - a love of learning. If the reactions to this thread are any indication (and I sincerely hope they aren't) then there's a real problem with this community. Identify problems - and then solve them! Keep the streaming between the class participants - privacy concerns addressed. Technology - use existing platforms. Maybe use the approach for part of class instruction and then do labs/exercises separately (as some helpful participants have suggested); or use it for tutoring; or combine it with community college classes - INNOVATE - or just hide in your shell and complain and defend the status quo because that is serving our students so well (e.g. note that the 'achievement gap' hasn't been reduced for years/decades by the status quo approach)... Sheesh.

Anonymous wrote:There are also privacy concerns. Parents have a right to know about their child but do not have a right to know about other children. FERPA concerns.

A) The focus could be on the front/teacher.
B) the kids can "opt out" like they do with yearbook.

Frankly, I don't see why this can be done. The PP IT guy seems to recognize that it could be relatively easy. I note that one of the grades at my ES uses an app where the teacher uploads videos of the class already (at this point just activities that class has done that day). THe app was free and it has been very seamless so far. Parents and kids love it.

While I think it could be used system-wide for some of the things other posters note (taking classes at different schools), I think it could easily be implemented now so kids could have access to lessons missed due to illness. It's already being done on a teacher by teacher basis.

And as for the science-based classes, I know a lady who did a medical-based graduate degree via distance. All classes online and then partnered with a local college (in this case it would be their own HS) to do the labs. Very easy.

There are also privacy concerns. Parents have a right to know about their child but do not have a right to know about other children. FERPA concerns.

As an IT guy, the technology is pretty simple. Many day care centers do it. Our church does it. Technologically...simple..not expensive.

But bureaucratically, it's prohibitive. By the time the bureaucrats and their consultants get done with it it would cost a fortune. These are the people that say it costs a million dollars to change a school name.

It's like putting GPS trackers on buses (a la Lyft/UBER) so you know when the bus will get to your stop. Technology...simple. Bureaucracy...impossible. They will hurt your head with reasons they can't do it.