Schools

Speak Out: Digital Learning in Fairfax County Public Schools

Parents are offering feedback as the system grapples with how to best integrate technology in the classroom.

by Jessie Biele; Erica Hendry contributed to this report

Fairfax County Public Schools launched its digital learning pilot program for the 2012-13 school year, but it wasn’t smooth sailing for parents, teachers, and students.

The short-term solution was to re-negotiate contracts to get some hard copy books back in the classroom.

The long-term solution, schools officials have suggested this spring, are a better plan for keeping Fairfax up to speed with online learning trends — not only textbooks but the use of devices like iPads and laptops and access issues, too.

Read: As New School Year Apporoaches: Digital Learning Back in Focus

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The school system began that process in May and June in a series of community dialogue meetings to gather suggestions about digital learning — a public outreach effort ahead of a planned work session on the issue this fall.

This week, Fairfax County Public Schools posted anonymous comments from parents and community members on its Facebook page to help draw even more feedback.

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Local parents embraced the idea of digital learning, but found it hard in practice, they wrote to the system on Facebook.  

“Technology is great, however, when trying to help your child with homework and you do not have a hard-copy book to reference; it is very very frustrating,” one parent wrote. “Its hard to try to explain concepts and work math problems when you are crowded around a computer trying to read a book or posted problems. My experience this year for 5th grade math; my child's teacher would not put up the correct assignments so we could not get homework done.”

Some parents were concerned that families who cannot afford basic household needs were at a disadvantage due to not being able to participate in the digital learning program due to costs.

“Many households cannot afford food, how can they afford even a minimal cost for access. Giving kids digital e readers or computers opens them up for robbery, and parents cannot afford to replace. Many students prefer to have a reference book to flip back to examples and notes particularly in math. Some [learning-disabled] students need books to support their efforts,” another parent wrote.

Still others were concerned that digital textbooks would replace face-to-face interactions between teacher and student:

“People learn today the same way they have always learned; by being taught and by doing,” one parent wrote. “To the extent that digital tools are useful in the classroom it is to enable scheduling, resourcing and distribution of assignments/grades. Please do NOT attempt to replace genuine person-to-person learning with ‘digital learning.’ It doesn't work and the losers are the children.”

Other parents, however, think the benefits of digital learning outweigh the cons.

“I believe we should be doing more of it. Kids today are more digitally oriented than we were so picking up the how to is easy for them. I am disappointed in how much more paperwork kids today bring home than they did in my day. I really think we can help the environment and our children if we learn how to use digital devices to record and read data used in the schools. Think of textbooks like e-readers. Allow kids to record lectures or take notes with their touch devices. Allow teachers to send class notes and lectures to these devices. I think it is the way to go,” a parent wrote.

What do you think of the online learning program? How should it move forward in 2013? Share your experiences in the comments below.


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