A Parent's Perspective of Online Education

 Hello friends: A month or so ago, I was invited to participate in an interview/discussion regarding a parent's perspective of online learning. Below is the script we came up with; host and educator Natalie Conway composed the questions and I wrote the responses. I was deeply honored to have been asked to give my insights on the subject and hope this might help some parents working with their online learners. 
Question One - So many people choose online schooling every year, but they all have unique reasons for why they do so. Why did you choose online schooling for your child and what has made you stay online?

Our journey toward online school was a gradual one. Between kindergarten and third grade, our son had been diagnosed with a learning disability and some other challenges, but the IEP plan and 504 recommendations from his doctors and therapists were often dismissed by the teachers, citing concerns that his need for them might be overshadowed by the social consequences of appearing ‘different’. His need for more support went ignored, and I can understand why this happens: when you have 26 kids in a small classroom, the teacher is basically triaging in real time where their efforts need to be focused. Kiddo wasn’t their biggest problem and honestly, this is a prime example of a student slipping through the cracks due to the under-investment in public education and the drive for good test scores. The student as a whole learner often is left out of the equation. The combined impacts of teachers believing his  inattentiveness was willful, and bullying by other students began having alarming effects on his mental health.These stresses, the distracting classroom environment, and physical bullying left him physically and emotionally exhausted at the end of the day. Homework was a nightly struggle because he didn’t remember what had been taught in class and was wiped out. His self-esteem and emotional health plummeted; he was constantly angry with himself.

I noticed that while he wasn’t finishing in-class projects, when he was assigned projects to be completed at home, he could do this because I provided one-on-one support. This was encouraging, because I knew I could help him. Before Spring Break of 3rd grade, we made the decision to bring him home for school. I knew that, with support and respect for his needs, we could get him caught up in a year or so. We both loved homeschooling. As a former preschool teacher, I enjoyed creating an interest-led curriculum of learning experiences, and this made it easy for me to create content and activities for our son. We covered many engaging topics in a multidisciplinary fashion:  we studied our mason bees, using science and math; we learned about the history and technologies of the First Americans; we played math games, practiced writing through creating comics; did kitchen science projects, and our learning about the Corps of Discovery’s journey to find the Northwest Passage included trips along the Columbia River to visit some of their campsites, including Fort Clatsop. I have fond memories of the joy and exploration in that fourth grade year. Near the end of summer, I saw an ad for Frontier Charter Academy of Oregon on a homeschooling parent Facebook page and it just clicked for me: the school offered an inquiry-based curriculum, one in which information and skills were presented in ways that were immediately relevant. It was like a dream come true, because we know that when students experience learning through projects that offer them some self-direction, their level of personal investment deepens.

Natalie - There are a variety of online schools and their programs differ rather significantly. It’s great that you found a school that fits with your values and was able to meet your son's needs in positive ways. I think it’s important that parents really get to know the school’s mission and understand how it works before fully enrolling. It’s got to be a good fit! So, you’ve stayed with FCA - your son must have experienced success for you to do so. Tell us about the changes you saw in him. 

We’ve continued with online learning as we’ve seen our son go from needing a lot of personalized support to being fairly independent and having more confidence in his abilities. He likes to work up on his loft bed, where distractions are most limited. Aside from live classes, he’s able to take breaks as he needs during the day and take care of his need for exercise or a snack without having to follow a firm and fixed schedule. This leaves him more time for personal pursuits than he might have at a brick and mortar school. FCA also had an eager desire to help students in their needs. With a focus on mastery, students have multiple opportunities to get feedback on their work and continue to improve it if they choose. Our son was included in conversations about his IEP plan, and the online environment provides more privacy for students who face learning challenges.The assistive technologies are subtle and allow students to use them without alerting the entire class. Online schools like FCA can offer helpful tools for kids with memory and attention issues: live lessons are recorded, so students can go back and rewatch the lesson if they feel they missed something the first time. Assignments are well-organized through Canvas, which allows students and parents to better manage their work and their time. Voice-to-text and other adaptive technologies are available, including having options for stories or information to be presented verbally, if needed. Thanks to this support, we have seen profound improvements in our son; he’s happy, he likes learning, he sees himself as a competent learner. Last year, it was determined that he didn’t need an IEP plan any more. That was more than I had ever expected. 

Natalie - I always half-joke that my job as a special education teacher is to make it so that I don’t have a job - IE helping students get to a point where they no longer need special education services because we’ve worked with them to fill in knowledge gaps, to gain necessary life skills and they’re confident and competent in their academics and their abilities in general and they know how to self-advocate and navigate school. It’s a tremendous feeling when a child no longer needs your support in those ways. They’re soaring, on their own power. 

I imagine there being some inherent tension in being a mom and learning support at home. What’s the hardest part about being the parent of an online student and how do you make that work?

The most difficult part of being both a mom and supporting our son’s learning was knowing how much support he needed and how much he could do on his own. I literally spent the entirety of his first year online next to him for every class, because he needed that support and encouragement in order to understand the new technology and keep himself focused, and I’ll loop back to this later. Being able to provide the continuity of one-on-one support was essential for this transition during fifth grade, but it wasn’t a helpful practice for us over the long term.  As a parent, it took a lot of active listening on my part to know when to step back and start redirecting him to the teachers for help. Taking incremental steps toward supporting the student’s independence is certainly a balancing act.

The best way I can support our son is to base my expectations on his demonstrated levels of responsibility and independence. 

Natalie - That’s a really wise idea, and teachers can take the same approach if they’re really good observers and work closely with families. Can you give us an example of how you used what you knew about your son’s level of independence and responsibility to manage expectations around school?

For example, in seventh grade we moved from me checking in on his work twice or more a week to once a week, and then on some weeks when he was really doing well independently, I didn’t check at all. Giving them opportunities to learn how to structure and take more control of their day is critical to their development, as is experiencing the consequences of these choices.  The risks are relatively small and can be learned from, so long as we offer support when they ask. While I expect him to get his schoolwork done in a timely manner, I try not to impose my own goals on his learning. Instead, I like to help him figure out what his goals are, mostly by encouraging a growth mindset and asking helpful questions when he’s stuck. “What do you need to know in order to do X?” or “What do you want to better understand about this?” Sometimes, giving him a chance to articulate what he needs will refocus his attention and point him in the desired direction. 

Natalie - This is such a great practice. Hazel, your teaching background certainly came in handy! Or you’re just a really really good mom! Maybe both! Asking the child what they need, what they think might help them. We adults want to just jump in sometimes and fix or suggest. One of my previous guests, Natalie Vardabasso, said “kids have all the answers” and I think you experienced that too. Not to say they don’t need ideas or support from us now and again, but just refocusing by asking them these questions - that’s powerful. They can manage more than we, or maybe they, think they can. 

I try to keep the challenge in proportion to its actual importance, which helps to manage the stress level. Years ago, I found the book “How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk '' by Faber and Mazlish to be incredibly insightful and helpful in my relationships. Active, reflective listening is often the most valuable thing we can do as parents and learning coaches. I’d say it’s also helpful not to treat their challenges as our own or to get emotionally involved when they are frustrated or upset. Staying more neutral and solution-oriented will help them get to a place of emotional regulation more quickly than getting upset alongside them.I’d also say, find something fun to do each day with your child, so they get to experience you as a whole parent and not just their learning coach. Making time to connect with them in this way is very important in strengthening the relationship. 

Natalie- We’ve heard a lot of remote learning and distance learning these past years. It’s not generally good news. I contend that an online school is not the same as the band-aid of “remote learning.” I’m curious to know - What do you wish the public knew about online education and online schools?

Answer Three - The public was rightfully distressed at the beginning of online learning. We know that people are best able to learn when they feel safe and secure, but going into this pandemic was traumatizing for so many people. Public school teachers were asked to radically pivot without the knowledge, insight, and resources online teachers had already developed. This was a monumental demand: that teachers who had taught in person, some for decades, were told to completely modify their skill set in a relatively short time and under incredible stress. Students who were used to in-person learning faced challenges: did they have support at home to help them? Did they have reliable internet access? Was there enough structure and guidance that even when the teacher wasn’t seen each day, the students felt supported?

There’s a profound difference between remote learning and online schooling, as there is between intention and reaction. Intention is what comes first before starting any successful venture: a vision, a plan, a setting of goals and with specific objectives and purpose. Online schools are intentional, the technologies and teaching methods dovetail to fit smoothly, the features the creators of the online school deemed necessary were baked into the planning, right at the blueprint stage. Remote learning was a reaction to the pandemic, more akin to taking the existing structure of in person learning and trying to force it to serve a very different form, which means much less efficiency and facility. It was a huge curve for so many students and teachers. 

For example, communication within the online school is much more streamlined. The students and parents can directly email the teachers for help or guidance, and the teachers offer office hours and appointments, so that the communication between the school and the families feels more intentional. Adaptive technologies are built in for students who need help to learn, so that the students are all being given a much more equitable playing field. Having recorded lessons to check back in on is such a huge asset for many learners, and the week’s work follows a pace and structure which effectively communicates to students how to proceed, and for projects, this offers ample opportunities for feedback. I don’t know that the school districts were tech savvy enough to know what remote learning could look like simply because the majority of teachers and administrators hadn’t worked in that capacity. Trying to replicate the classroom without those supplemental tools led to a lot of gaps, including one of technology and access, which directly had an impact on student equity. 

When online schools issue Chromebooks or other computers, they do so with an understanding of the habits of students, which means that the technology directs the students away from distractions like social media platforms and video games. This helps keep the student more focused while on that device. While brick and mortar schools did a huge push to issue laptops, they weren’t loaded with proprietary platforms like Canvas, nor were they programmed with any controls, and many of my friends complained their kids were using Instagram and playing games while they should have been doing school work, which meant relying on families to monitor what is on the student’s screens all throughout the day, which isn’t feasible, especially for families where the adults are gone for the day, working. Families with lower economic resources struggled to get internet access and computers so their children could learn at home, but without the support of adults practiced in using the technology, many families felt that they were left to manage their children’s education on their own.

I think the remote learning also required a quick pivot to different methods of classroom management. In online school, expectations are expressed very clearly from the beginning of the school year; teachers are quick to shut the chat down if it goes off topic or is otherwise distracting. Understanding the functionality of the platform is key to online learning, but can be a huge hurdle to someone whose primary work is in a physical classroom. The degree to which distractions during instruction are redirected or simply better managed cannot be overstated. There is a very strong social ethic regarding online behavior and civility put forward in online school; conversely, brick and mortar schools were having to make it up as they went along.

With remote learning, teachers relied heavily on seeing the student’s faces on the screen, staring at the screen. While that actually gives the teacher very little actual information about the student’s level of focus, it did  lead to burn out for the kids. Many families complained about their student not being excused to use the bathroom for fear of being marked absent or, in some cases, even looking away from the screen would result in disciplinary comments made in front of their peers. We all know kids need, first and foremost, to feel safe and secure in order to learn, but the microfocus on the faces takes away from both the instruction and the level of trust the student has with the teacher. In online school, our son is able to take a minute to use the bathroom just by checking his status box really quickly, or if he’s hungry and needs to eat while he’s learning, that’s allowed. Online teachers have an understanding of the more nuanced methods of assessing the student’s attention, such as their participation in answering questions via the chat or different symbols and the actual progress the student is showing in the work they are handing in. So, for me, the understanding of the technology informs the online teacher of how to gauge the student’s level of attention in ways which don’t rely solely on physical presence. That’s something I don’t think conventional teachers working remotely had time to grow into. I’m hoping that more teachers are offered these sorts of courses and experiences as part of their professional development. 

Natalie - We talked a lot last year about the whole “cameras on” debate and sometimes it still comes up. I really appreciate your understanding of how many tools an online educator has to measure engagement. Last season I talked with Christopher Younggren who was a brick and mortar teacher turned remote teacher, and he had great advice for educators about that, as does Jodi Miller, who was featured in EP 1 this season! Anything else you want the public to know about online schools?

Besides access and personal support, the quality of the assignments is of equal consequence. When you are creating assignments at each grade level, knowing what the target student is capable of and what is within their grasp online is of vital importance in both in-person and online settings. “Can I present the subject in a way the student can understand and access it?” “Can the student access the resources necessary to complete the assignment?” “How do we promote thoughtful discussions in ways which allow all students to contribute?” “How can we provide opportunities for the overlapping of different disciplines, so that the student’s experience is richer, instead of teaching some materials as separate subjects and just killing time to make it through a six hour day?” Our son loves that he isn’t glued to his Chromebook for hours on end, and I think the breaks between classes throughout the day provide time for rest or exercise, a chance to let their eyes rest from screens. Neurological studies have shown the value of breaks during learning times, to let the information sink in. Scientific America has a great article about the positive effects of breaks, meditation and walks in nature have positive effects on productivity, learning, memory, and creativity, all of which are critical aspects of our student’s development. I don’t know to what degree remote learning followed any practices modeled by online schools, but I did hear from peer parents how disappointed many of them were as to the content of some classes. It really cannot be an apples-to-apples comparison, either, which is what we want to make clear: online schools and remote learning are entirely different creatures.

Lastly, the online school students had already been more or less conditioned to manage the experience and technology, while remote learning was an enormous adjustment.We need to acknowledge this: many students do need more support from their teachers and families when they first go into online learning, because they are retraining their brains to take in lessons and information in a different way, but then they grow to gain facility, usually starting with the first week of onboarding lessons and gradual introduction of the tools and platforms introduced to students within the lessons. Online students had the advantage of being familiar with the parameters of the technology, while remote learners often did not have that cushion of time and support. With remote learning, both the teachers and the students were having to learn all of this together during what most of us would argue is the largest collective trauma in our lifetimes. I think that’s why so much of the end of the 2020 school year felt like a wash for many families. It needs to be stated: this pandemic IS a crisis, and we had a lot of kids impacted with the trauma of the pandemic as well as suddenly being on unsteady footing in their usually-predictable schools. Some students did take to remote learning, but many felt the change in modes and locations deeply. Overall, while I would not say online school is not a match for every learner and their social needs, it was a great one for us and has helped lessen our potential stress during these challenging times.