Online Educators...

[SLAB]

It’s been a long journey of ZOOMing but after a little more than a year, our students are finally returning to campus next week when Spring Break is over.

9 weeks of hybrid schedule, summer, then hopefully the schedule is pretty normal after. But who knows. I’ve missed the kiddos!

 

[pdxKingsFan]

My kiddo is being held out until May (his class resumed two weeks ago), but 4 of 5 adults in his homes have been fully vaxxed and the other has received the first shot so we're almost ready.

I was in the office several times in March - thankfully in slacks and a button up shirt that fit! - for some student on student exams/learning plus we offered PA students the chance to interact with patients via WebEx in the exam rooms. In May we will be bringing our patients back in for them to train on in a very limited capacity. It's a bit crazy all the restrictions we have but since our patients (simulated) are not full time employees but like family to us, if any got sick on our watch without benefits I think we'd be pretty devastated.

I am so ready for more in-person learning. But, I also installed webcams and speaker bars onto all of the computers in our exam rooms over the break. Just in case?

 

[Warhawk]

My wife went back to hybrid teaching (reduced class size, half class alternate days and Zoom one day a week) about a week ago (TK/kindergarten). My son went back into his high school at the same time, but there has been a very small turnout for in-class students as they are limiting who can come in.

 

[Löwenherz]

My school went back to a split day, in-person hybrid model on March 15th. Means A-L students are on campus for 3 periods in the morning, then M-Z students come in for the same three classes in the afternoon.

Some students have chosen to remain home, so every class has to be built for both in-person and virtual students.

 

[Spike]

We've been in person all year, going on and off depending on positivity. My recommendation to all of you from a tech perspective, is to avoid any new tech gadget. We spent so much money on Swivls, and it was a waste. Most teachers just want a generic stand for their ipads. That's what we recommended as well, but our parents wanted to throw more money at the issue.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Had to google Swivl. We tried that tech ~10 years ago when I first got roped into online learning. Sucked then not surprising it does now. I got pushed out of that job around the time a project I had worked on for over a year for a new video conferencing system was approved. I think they may have got some zoned camera systems out of that but I never saw them, but the vendor wasn't even high on it. I think that one relied on mic zones to trigger cameras.

 

[Warhawk]

We've been in person all year, going on and off depending on positivity. My recommendation to all of you from a tech perspective, is to avoid any new tech gadget. We spent so much money on Swivls, and it was a waste. Most teachers just want a generic stand for their ipads. That's what we recommended as well, but our parents wanted to throw more money at the issue.

I'd never heard of that either. For the most part my wife just uses Zoom and a document camera hooked up to her laptop. Oh, and a projector. Again, she's teaching kindergarten level, so getting too fancy with tech probably isn't the correct answer.