Distance Learning: Let’s not Reinvent the Wheel
Amidst the sea of chaos brought on by COVID-19, while most schools are having to hoist new sails in uncharted waters, a handful of others have been able to more or less stay the course. Before the pandemic began, approximately 375,000 of America’s 56 million K–12 students already attended school online full-time. The schools serving these students have years of experience with distance learning—decades in some cases. Of course, these schools too are facing added challenges of serving families strained by unemployment, illness, or added stress and anxiety, and in many cases, educators are having to juggle teaching with tending to their own children at home. But when it comes to the core elements of instruction, “social distancing” and “shelter in place” have meant more or less business as usual for online schools. So what can brick-and-mortar schools learn from them?
