RPS announced over the weekend that classes would be canceled on Monday because of the issues with its network. District leaders haven't articulated the exact nature of the issue, but they did say that starting Tuesday, classes would resume "with no or reduced access to technology systems."
So, what exactly does that mean?
"Tomorrow is going to look like more old-school teaching," said Dan Kuhlman, President of the Rochester Education Association. "Pencils, paper and teachers teaching."
In other words, no smart boards, no Chromebooks, no tablets. Even the use of copiers, Kuhlman said, is not available at the moment. So, for the time being, the district is operating in a world a couple decades removed from what it normally would.
The reason students didn't have classes on Monday was so that teachers could have time to adapt to the situation. The district held a 9 a.m. meeting for staff members to discuss the issue.
The district hasn't given teachers any indication how long they will have to go without the technology they normally rely on. District officials declined to comment on the situation beyond the initial statement about the issue.
While the district uses technology for basically every subject in every classroom, there are some topics where it is ingrained into the very fabric of the students' education.
Vince Wagner is a teacher at the district's P-Tech program, which allows students to gain college credit in either information technology or practical nursing. In that program, technology is incredibly relevant.
"It pretty much changes our whole modality," Wagner said about the shift away from technology. "We did almost everything digitally."
However, Wagner went on to say that pretty much anything can be taught with old methodology. He said that when he was taking computer science courses in college, his tests were in two parts: coding in the lab, but also written tests with pencil and paper.
He said it will be a good experience for students to realize they may not always have access to the Internet.
Kuhlman compared the situation to when schools had to instantly pivot to distance learning three years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic. Only this time, they're going analog instead of to e-learning.
"On the short term, I think it can be done," Kuhlman said. "If you had to do long term and just change everything radically, that would be way more difficult."
©2023 the Post-Bulletin. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
