Parents to decide between online or in-person learning
Posted Aug 12, 2020 7:44 am.
Last Updated Aug 12, 2020 9:40 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) – Online learning or back to school? That’s a question many parents will be asking as they prepare for the coming year.
Registration for the Calgary Board of Education’s (CBE) online hub runs from now until Aug. 24 while the Catholic division deadline is on Aug. 21.
However, if you opt to go online you can’t swap for physical classes until February and if you register for in-person classes, you can’t switch to online classes.
But will online teaching be just as effective as physical learning?
Online learning expert with the University of British Columbia, Tony Bates, said digital classes aren’t one-size-fits-all, explaining younger kids may struggle going online rather than heading to physical classes.
“I have much more confidence in the post-secondary level that you could replace a lot of university teaching with online teaching. I don’t have the same confidence for elementary school students. ”
“The older the child, the more likely the teaching is to be successful. The younger, the more gaps there will be in their education. It’s not a panacea, it’s not a solution for all kids learning problems.”
Bates added while there are barriers to online learning, once you get over those humps and re-evaluate the teaching methods, it can be effective.
“You can do online teaching well and you can do face-to-face teaching well but you can do both badly as well. It depends on the quality of the teaching and the quality in respect to the way the medium is used.”
Last month the CBE unveiled its re-entry plan which includes options for in-person and online learning as well as daily screenings for COVID-19 and other health measures.
RELATED: CBE re-entry plan includes online learning program
As Calgary parents decide which route to take for the coming year, many teachers are raising the alarm about class sizes during the pandemic.
Teacher Renee Englot joined the Opposition NDP in a demonstration showing how hard physical distancing will be in classrooms come September.
Englot said she has to find room for three more students this year as her class size increases to 35.
“It is impossible to physically distance in a classroom without a cap on class size. I worry that my students are going to walk in on the first day, look in on how tightly packed we are, even worse than last year and say ‘I thought we were spreading out?’ ”
WATCH: Class size concerns loom over some teachers
Englot believes anxiety among students will be high and many won’t be showing up the second day of class.
She wants the UCP government to bring in more teachers, alternative spaces and lower class sizes to help reduce the risk of COVID-19.
The NDP has called for classes to be capped at 15 students, something the Ministry of Education says is not feasible.
-With files from CityNews Edmonton
