Long Distance Runaround

Note -- this is not a screed; it is an exploration of ideas, challenges and changes so that I can work through them and be better than I am at what it is I have to do.

I am in a state of aloneliness. That's not a bad thing, and often is my desired status but now, it is being requested of me in response to the outbreak of fear concerning the transmission of the coronavirus. So I'm staying at home as socially distant. I have been emotionally distant for years, but now, this.

I'm OK being stuck at home. That's where much of my stuff is. But I also recognize my responsibility to my students. Not to brag, but I'm a teacher so I'm supposed to be telling 15 year-olds stuff that they don't already know, and didn't know they are supposed to care about. So the school has sat us all down (virtually) and given us a crash course in setting up video classrooms. They are much like regular classrooms except totally different. Now I know how to set up meeting times, share my screen, and talk at my computer. I'm a expert!

Now here's the thing -- I have been teaching on the high school level (that does not refer to my teaching, but to the people I teach) for over 25 years. I know what I'm doing. That doesn't mean that I'm doing anything right, well, or competently, but I know what I'm doing. When I screw up, I know it. When I succeed, I'll know it. I don't believe that my skill at teaching a live class of between 5 and 50 humans can be transferred and replicated virtually.

Part of teaching is the individual nature of instruction even in a packed class. Being able to walk through a group and assess who is on task and who isn't (and, often, why and whether it is worth calling out) is part of the job. If I have, on my screen, the video of the 4 people who spoke most recently and maybe also 4 people whom I choose to watch all the time, I will be unable to watch anyone else. If some child is quiet and isn't one I have to worry about actively, I might never see him through the class and have no idea if he is clicking with the material.

There also seems to be no particular way for students to "raise hands". If I am lecturing (another problem -- in a world of flipped classrooms, this delivery system seems to revolve around the facilitator of the classroom making lecture the easiest method) and a student has a question, I will either get a notification if the student speaks (which is an interruption), or puts something in a chat box, which requires that I process a different set of visual inputs while trying to watch the various students. The sense ratio will be very different. I also fear the student who, assuming I didn't see a comment in a chat box, floods the box with additional requests, so I have to remain vigilant and address each chat statement verbally (instead of through eye contact or a wave of the hand, indicating "I see you, but I'm not ready for questions"). The differences in platforms and options available to each (web, phone, app etc) should also be considered as I have already run into situations where what others can do I cannot because I am using a different interface.

And what about the content? Do I prepare a video for the students to watch in advance of or during the class meeting session? I have always resisted preparing videos because they are too unidirectional and non-spontaneous. I know what some of you are thinking -- why should the class be spontaneous? Don't you have a curriculum and haven't you planned out what you are going to teach? Yes and no. I teach, this year, four sections of the 10th grade, all ostensibly on the same tracked-level. Let's say I want to begin a unit on poetry. I need to assess prior knowledge by asking prompting questions, and I have to watch, as I present information to see what is not sinking in so I can either represent it, or move in a totally different direction, salvage the balance of the class-time by presenting other material and get back to a difficult topic on another day. I might realize that students who claim to have prior knowledge really don't, or don't have what I need them to have, so I have to change gears and cover earlier material again. But I only know this on the fly. It can't be prepped for -- a teacher has to think on his feet, something hard to do while sitting down on one's tush.

The nature of assessments has to change as well. Timed, summative evaluations are not impossible but are tough -- they have to be set up through various third-party services with an "assessment open" and "assessment closed" time, but even then, students are on their honor not to consult each other, the internet or other resources to do the work. It does beg the entire goal and utility of timed, summative assessments, but I still see them as valuable and, though I generally trust most of my students, it isn't proper to put a stumbling block out there. If one student cuts corners and has an improved grade, others will be disadvantaged. So I can do more formative assessments I guess. But those require a lot of tech set up as well, and their nature is so static. I already do many of these when I ask for participation or groups to present short ideas but again, some of the spontaneity is lost here. And if I tell the students to work on a long term project while I sit at my computer, ready to interact with individuals who have questions, is that really a virtual classroom? I do this in class sometimes, but on the computer, a private question by one student can be heard by all and unless I have set up separate chat avenues for each student, and monitor them, what one types, all see. This might not be embarrassing, but it is disruptive.

Also, can I sustain anything like this for a formal 40 minute period? Monitoring who is there, who is paying attention, who is getting the material and still presenting content is tough when done through the computer. Forty minutes, live is tiring but I have developed an approach which allows me to do this. It took many years of watching, practicing and studying before I got even OK at it. Now, we have to change the entire approach, and possibly the aim of the class and the standards of evaluation and get it right from day one.

Note -- I am not even addressing the changes in demands and expectation on the students as learners. First, you have the technological (and financial) demand. While in this community it is presumed, there are still students whose families do not have (or approve of) extra technology. Then we have to consider that everything from behavior to participation to performance will change, and the one thing we have been worried about (that they will be distracted by screens and technology) will now become the sine qua non of instruction. Talk about a stumbling block. We are all but demanding multi-tasking, which never quite works, and expecting the kind of behavior and awareness which we cultivate face to face, when there is no way to enforce anything. Say a student moves his computer so he is off camera. Am I supposed to say something? Or he is on camera and staring intently at the screen. How do I know what he is really doing? Or he puts his microphone on mute (so as not to disturb class discussion) and then puts his phone next to him and makes a phone call on speakerphone, being totally distracted while apparently listening intently. A student can make all sorts of excuses (my wifi wasn't working, my computer is slow, the software didn't work for me etc) and I can't question (or remediate) any of them [and what happens if MY technology isn't working perfectly?]. Group work done virtually compounds this as students have to monitor each other (not an option in our school software -- they will have to be working on multiple screens which introduces a whole exponential host of problems).

This will all demand extensive cultural, psychological and pedagogical change. None of that change is impossible (though it is tougher for some of us ol' dawgs) and I think it will require rethinking what we hope to accomplish through education. If it succeeds then we will have to ask the reverse question -- if it can be shown that goals are reached through virtual learning, then why maintain traditional brick and mortar schools at all? If we think that there is something which virtual learning cannot accomplish, then we have to be ready to embrace that limitation now, instead of assuming that we can do a land-office job from day one, and ignoring (and anticipating) the problems. While I know that we need a solution NOW and we don't have the option of implementing slowly, testing and revising bit-by-bit, I believe that we need to validate concerns and work through them as real challenges instead of brushing them aside and reassuring ourselves that "we will figure it out."