Is Online Instruction the Answer for Calamity Days?
Sometimes I think that Ohio will never get ahead of the curve when it comes to integrating technology into our K-12 education system. Instead of being open to the millions of ways technology can become an integral part of education, we seem to find news ways to compartmentalize and truncate the use of technology in some of the least productive ways.
The Winchester News-Gazette reports that Mississinawa Valley students will be able to make-up two “calamity days” using online instruction.
Mississinawa Valley students start school on Tuesday, Aug. 31. Their schedule includes two days less than other Ohio students because of a pilot program to use electronic (computerized) instruction on two “calamity” (bad weather) days.
Superintendent Lisa Wendel said, “We believe face-to-face instruction is best, and electronic instruction should be used only when face-to-face is not possible.”
MV”s 2010-2011 calendar calls for 176 student attendance days, which is two less that the state’s official requirement. If bad weather closes school for at least two days, the pilot program for electronic instruction will be activated.
Local teachers have worked over the summer to develop those electronic lessons or calamity days. The Darke County Educational Service Center has provided teaching training for MV’s pilot program.
Bad weather closed MV Schools for nine days last year. Darke County Superintendent Mike Gray wondered, “Why can’t we do electronic instruction instead of missing school?”
Wendel made a formal plan and took the idea to State Representative Jim Zehringer, who had the plan put into legislative language. The bill is now in the Ohio House Education Committee. Wendel also submitted the pilot program to the Ohio Department of Education, and that approval is almost finished.
On the first two days that bad weather closes schools, the electronic instruction plan will be implemented. Students who have access to the Internet at home will have be able to work on their lessons that day. All students, including those who don’t have computer access, will have two weeks after school resumes to complete the lessons.
Ohio schools have traditionally had five calamity days, but the state legislature reduced that number to three for the upcoming year. Wendel said the bill now in the House committee allows up to five days for electronic instruction. If the bill does not pass by the end of the year, the calamity (no school) days go back to five.
Don’t misunderstand me, I like the idea of using technology to make up missed instructional time. What I don’t like is limiting technology to such narrow uses.
Why should technology-based instruction be relegated to calamity days? Why should districts and schools need permission to use technology to expand access and improve productivity every day?
It can come as no surprise that Ohio is one of minority of states that does not operate a statewide online school.
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