A rapid response to COVID-19: one district’s pivot from technology integration to distance learning

Abstract

Purpose In March of 2020, Minnesota schools were mandated to transition to distance learning to slow the spread of COVID-19. The charge of providing equitable and appropriate remote learning to all students gave administrators, educators and non-academic staff a few weeks to completely redesign education. This paper aims to describe one district’s experience in planning and offering distance education and build precedent other educational leaders may use in future designs. Design/methodology/approach This case study documents how one rural K12 district leveraged their strong foundation of technology integration and created crisis remote learning solutions for its most marginalized student populations including special education students, English learners and financially disadvantaged students. Findings This study shares examples of how this district prioritized relationships and the well-being of students and staff and outlines practical strategies for equitable distance learning that should be considered during and beyond emergency remote teaching. Originality/value This paper provides just-in-time practical advice for K12 administrators and educators on navigating crisis distance learning.

Assessing the Experience of Universities' Online Admission in Egypt: An Experiment Conducted during the COVID-19

“…The technology provides room for a sustained communication that was reported amongst the COVID-19 crisis difficulties in (Peterson et al, 2020). As (Garrison & Arbaugh ,2007) defined hidden curriculum as an emerging theme in our data as throughout the inquiry phase when teachers considering a technology a constant, coursework interaction can be considered effectively a practical learning goal.…”

“…The conducted experiments during the COVID-19 crisis on 16 universities' websites revealed a respected concern of the universities to keep their websites informative with clear, accurate, and most recent information. This was clarified in (Peterson et al, 2020) who stressed considering the up-to-date information as well as user needs. These universities were alerted to the COVID -19 crisis impact on their offered services and core activities.…”

Investigating COVID-19 Crisis Influence on Universities’ Websites Content in Egypt

“…The research reported the inadequate student and staff about the library services and resources, the requirement up to date information considering user needs (Hendal, 2020). Keeping sustained communication between tutors and students can be considered as the main problem among the problems they faced in the period of the COVID-19 crisis (Peterson et al, 2020).…”

The Effect of Technology Integration in Education on Prospective Teachers' Critical and Creative Thinking, Multidimensional 21st Century Skills and Academic Achievements

“…These studies concentrate on emergency remote education; adapting guided inquiry learning (Howley, 2020), priorities for mobile learning (Hall, et. al, 2020;Yuksel, Cetin & Berikan, 2019), rich dialogic interactions (Jung & Brady, 2020), perspectives on educational equity (Aguliera & Nightengale-Lee, 2020), a pedagogical toolkit to emergency remote education (Flynn, 2020), perspectives of technology education during COVID-19 (Code, Ralph & Forde, 2020), self-regulated learning environments: strategies for remote learning (Carter, Rice, Yang & Jackson, 2020), Covid-19 challenges and opportunities for teacher education (Kalloo, Mitchell & Kamalodeen, 2020), adapting quickly to emergency remote instruction (Kaiper-Marquez et al, 2020), China's education response to COVID-19 (Xue, Li, Li & Shang, 2020), construction and operation method of remote class environment (Murata & Fujimoto, 2020), digital network education in times of pandemic (Moreira, Henriques & Barros, 2020), technology integration to distance learning (Peterson, Scharber, Thuesen & Baskin, 2020) issues have been discussed and analyzed. These studies mainly adopted the issues of moving education systems to a new platform, avoiding disruptions in distance education and taking measures.…”