Covid 19 coronavirus: ‘game changer’ online learning, but many may still be lost

One million Kiwi children start a new school period tomorrow without access to their schools and early childhood centers due to the blockage of the coronavirus.

Most are expected to learn online thanks to a massive distribution of free computers and Internet connections that a low-decile school principal describes as a long-term “game changer”.

Two educational television channels will start at 9 am, one in front of Suzy Cato on TVNZ2 + 1 and one on Māori TV’s Te Reo channel. The Māori TV service will run for 10 weeks, a sign that normal education is unlikely to resume quickly after the current blockade ends.

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• Covirus 19 coronavirus: educational television channels and free computers to boost learning at home
• Covirus 19 coronavirus: Suzy Cato leads home school lessons, learning packages, and computers on the way
• Coronavirus: Government plan to provide Internet and devices to 70,000 children if Covid-19 forces the massive closure of schools

But some low-decile principals worry that some students are still missing because schools have lost touch with them.

Decile-1 Davida Suasua, principal of Tangaroa College, has given the Ministry of Education a list of 300 students who still need computers, from its list of more than 800, after distributing the school’s 75 existing devices and purchasing 18 more for health science students The ministry offering was revealed.

But she said many other families have not responded to messages.

“They change their numbers as much as they change their shirts, so having a contact number that can be contacted, that in itself is another concern,” he said.

“We usually go and visit, but we can’t do that. We don’t know how many of our students have moved out of the house, we had some who were in emergency housing.

“We don’t know what this will be like, how many students will return; many families have lost their jobs and our students could be asked to leave and find a job instead of going back to school.”

Education Ministry digital director Stuart Wakefield said the ministry aimed to provide devices and the Internet at home in the next four weeks to the 20,000 students in years 11-13 who do not have them, and believes that a total up to 145,000 students in 82,000 households will need them in all age groups.

Both the devices and the Internet are delivered first to students taking national exams this year in their last three years of high school, starting with schools in the lowest income deciles.

Harry Savage, a 5-year-old Year 1 student at Decile-9 Bethlehem College in Tauranga, is ready to start learning on an iPad purchased for that purpose.

“We had been reluctant to have an iPad around the house, as Harry loves taking tablets from his older cousins ​​or Poppa to play with,” said his father Jared Savage.

“But with schools closed, and we don’t know how long, I ended up ordering one online when Noel Leeming was allowed to sell ‘essentials’ items simply to keep in touch with his teacher and online lessons.

“The school uses the Seesaw app, during ‘normal’ school hours, to share with parents what their children have been up to during the day, share videos or photos, and send messages or notices directly to parents.

“For the first few days of closing and the last few weeks of vacation, Harry’s teacher has been posting videos of her talking to the kids, sharing photos or links to different reading and math lessons, drawing ideas, or even questions or ideas to talk to Harry. “

Wayne Buckland, director of decile-5 Bream Bay College near Whangārei, said he bought 100 Chromebooks just before closing to distribute to families who didn’t have suitable devices on his 580 list.

“We set them up between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. on closing Wednesday and we passed them through car windows between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.,” he said.

“We had 20 families without internet. We have arranged 20 connection packages, the last one will be delivered today (Tuesday).

“We teach fully online on Thursday and Friday after closing [before school holidays] and we had 83 percent and 87 percent attendance, and we would expect attendance in the high 90s tomorrow (Wednesday). “

Greg Pierce, director of decile-2 Aorere College in Papatoetoe, has asked the ministry for devices for 500 of its 850 students in years 11-13.

“About a third of our students have a device. Two thirds do not,” he said.

“We still believe that there are probably between 10 and 15 percent that do not have connectivity. So we have given all that information to the ministry, and we have been informed that telecommunications companies are configured to start connecting to homes and that There should be connectivity for the vast majority of homes in the next two weeks.

“The understanding is that the student gets the device in the meantime, but they are a school resource and the expectation is that when the school returns, the devices will return to the students. For schools like us, it could change the game.” “

But he said face-to-face teacher-student relationships were also crucial in low-decile schools, and that many students were not well placed to learn at home.

“I would say more than 50 percent would live in overcrowded conditions,” he said.

Robin Staples of the Decile-1 Southern Cross Campus in Māngere has ordered devices for about half of his students, but said unstable life situations would complicate Internet connections.

“We know that some children are going to have different parents at different times,” he said. “That’s pretty difficult to manage for connectivity.”

Home Learning Questions and Answers

. Children are not necessarily expected to study from 9am to 3pm as they would at school.

Hobsonville Point Elementary School says young children only spend part of the school day in focused individual learning. Recommend one or two hours for years 0 to 4, two and a half hours for years 2 to 6, and three hours for years 4 to 8. (Years overlap because children learn at different rates).

Q. Should they follow a strict schedule?

A. Many schools, especially at the secondary level, maintain subject schedules when teachers will be available online for tutoring. But others are not; It depends on the school.

Q. Who will get free internet connections?

A. The Ministry of Education has identified 82,000 homes with school-age children who do not have Internet at home. It has all the addresses of the students of the schools and has identified those that do not have internet of the records of all the telecommunications companies.

About 20,000 of these households with children in years 11-13 will get internet and devices in the next four weeks, with the rest to follow later.

The ministry will pay the full costs of a package that supports students’ online learning for six months. Families will not be able to choose which package they will receive.

Schools have released ministerial lists of students who need devices. The ministry will pay for and insure the devices and give them away to the students’ schools. Each school will decide whether families should return them when normal schooling resumes.

• More details: learningfromhome.govt.nz; Ki Te Ao Mārama; covid19.govt.nz.