2020年我們在網課學到的5件事

Deborah Rosenthal starts her virtual kindergarten class on Zoom every morning with a song — today, it's the Spanish version of, "If You're Happy and You Know It." Her students clap along. There's a greeting from the class mascot (a dragon), yoga, meditation and then some practice with letter sounds: "Oso, oso, O, O, O".

黛博拉·羅森塔爾（Deborah Rosenthal）每天早上都會在Zoom上用一首歌開始她的虛擬幼兒園課程——今天，這首歌是西班牙語版的《如果你很高興，你知道的話》。她的學生們都跟著拍手。班上有吉祥物（龍）的問候語，瑜伽，冥想，然後練習字母發音：「Oso，Oso，O，O，O」。

Rosenthal teaches Spanish immersion in a public school in San Francisco's Mission District. Most of the families are low-income, and many are now affected by COVID-related job loss. She has taught kindergarten for 15 years, and she loves how "hands-on" "tactile," and "cozy" it is to work with 5-year-olds.

羅森塔爾在舊金山教區的一所公立幼兒園教西班牙語。大多數家庭都是低收入家庭，許多家庭現在都受到與COVID—19帶來的的失業的影響。她在幼兒園教了15年書，她喜歡和5歲的孩子一起工作是多麼的「動手」「觸覺」和「舒適」。

But this year, she's spending 10 or 12 hours a day on, basically, her own home production of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood En Espa ol. "It's a very two-dimensional experience," she says.

但今年，她每天都要花10到12個小時，基本上，她自己在家裡製作羅傑斯先生的社區電視劇。」這是一種非常二維的體驗，」她說。

Few people would tell you that online kindergarten was a good idea, or frankly even possible. That was, before 2020. The number has fluctuated as cases rise across the country, but throughout this fall pandemic semester, between 40 and 60 percent of students have been enrolled in districts that offer only remote learning, according to a tracker maintained by the company Burbio.

很少有人會告訴你，網上幼兒園是個好主意，或者說實話是可能的。那是在2020年之前。這個數字隨著全國病例的增加而波動，但是根據Burbio公司維護的一個追蹤系統顯示，在整個秋季流感大流行的學期裡，40%到60%的學生在只提供遠程學習的地區就讀。

And even in hybrid districts, some students have been learning remotely, either part or full time. In short, online learning is the reality for a majority of students this fall.

即使在混居區，一些學生也在遠程學習，有的是半工半讀，有的是全日制。簡言之，網絡學習是今年秋季大多數學生的現實。

We are still starved for data on what this all means. The earliest standardized test scores coming out show modest learning loss for students in math, but there are worries that the most at-risk students are not being tested at all.

我們仍然渴望得到這一切意味著什麼的數據。最早公布的標準化考試成績顯示，學生在數學方面的學習損失不大，但有人擔心，最有風險的學生根本沒有接受測試。

For this story I talked to educators in six states, from California to South Carolina. For the most part they say things have improved since last spring. But they are close to burnout, with only a patchwork of support. They said the heart of the job right now is getting students connected with school and keeping them that way — both technologically and even more importantly, emotionally. Here are five lessons learned so far.

為了這個故事，我採訪了六個州的教育工作者，從加利福尼亞到南卡羅來納州。大部分情況下，他們說自去年春天以來情況有所改善。但他們已經接近精疲力竭，只有有限的支持。他們說，現在工作的核心是讓學生與學校保持聯繫，並保持這種聯繫——技術上的，更重要的是情感上的。以下是迄今為止得到的五個教訓。

1. The digital divide is still big and complex.

數字鴻溝仍然巨大而複雜。

Eight months after schools first shut down, how many students still can't sign on? We don't really know, and that's a problem, says Nicol Turner Lee, director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution. "We've not done a really great job in aggregating the data as to how many kids are still disconnected," she adds. "It's very disappointing as well as concerning."

學校第一次停課8個月後，還有多少學生不能報名？布魯金斯學會（Brookings Institution）技術創新中心主任尼科爾 特納 李（Nicol Turner Lee）表示：「我們不太清楚，這是個問題。」她補充道：「我們在匯總數據方面做得還不是很好，到底有多少孩子仍然沒有聯繫上。」這既令人失望，也令人擔憂。」

The National Education Association recently reported, based on pre-pandemic Census data, that one quarter of households with children aged 5 to 17 lacked either high-speed Wi-Fi, a computer or both. For households near the poverty line, the number was closer to half.

美國國家教育協會（National Education Association）最近根據疫情前的人口普查數據報告，有5至17歲兒童的家庭中，有四分之一的家庭要麼沒有高速Wi-Fi，要麼沒有電腦，要麼兩者兼而有之。對於接近貧困線的家庭，這一數字接近一半。

That figure may have gotten better. Many districts have scrambled to distribute their classroom laptops to families, to buy portable hotspots, and call on private and corporate donations. But there are still gaps.

這個數字可能會變好。許多地區陸續地向家庭分發課堂筆記本電腦，購買可攜式熱點，並呼籲私人和企業捐款。但仍有差距。

Partly, that's because there hasn't been any pandemic federal stimulus aid to public schools since April. State revenue is down, too. For example, Richard Carranza, the chancellor of New York City public schools, said last month that 60,000 of the district's 1.1 million students are still missing devices — about 5.5 percent.

部分原因是，自4月份以來，聯邦政府沒有向公立學校提供大規模的疫情刺激性援助。國家財政收入也在下降。例如，紐約市公立學校校長理察卡蘭扎（richardcarranza）上個月表示，該區110萬名學生中仍有6萬人沒有設備，約佔5.5%。

Nicol Turner Lee at Brookings is working on a book about the digital divide, and she says it's multidimensional. There's housing: Lose your home and you lose your broadband connection. There are backlogs of items like Chromebooks.

布魯金斯大學的nicolturner-Lee正在寫一本關於數字鴻溝的書，她說這是多維的。還有住房：失去你的家，你就失去了寬帶連接。像Chromebook這樣的項目有積壓。

Then there's infrastructure.

還有基礎設施。

"That rural Internet divide is real. I mean, it's a real problem right now in America," says Caroline Weathers, who teaches in a small town in South Carolina. Her district gave out hotspots, but in some places they didn't work because there wasn't cell service from the major carriers.

「農村網際網路的鴻溝是真實的。我的意思是，現在在美國這是一個真正的問題，」在南卡羅來納州一個小鎮教書的卡羅琳 威瑟斯說。她所在的地區提供了熱點，但有些地方因為沒有主要運營商的手機服務而無法工作。

And, the digital divide is about more than equipment. Deborah Rosenthal's school in San Francisco, Buena Vista Horace Mann, is a community school, meaning there are wraparound services, including lots of help with technology.

而且，數字鴻溝不僅僅是設備問題。黛博拉·羅森塔爾在舊金山的學校，布埃娜·維斯塔·霍勒斯·曼，是一所社區學校，意味著有全面的服務，包括許多技術幫助。

Despite all that, she didn't make contact with one of her students until two and a half months into the school year. That's so even though her mother had come to school to pick up a laptop and hotspot. "The little girl was going to a babysitter that was not literate," Rosenthal says. "And so nobody could help this child get onto a computer."

儘管如此，她直到開學的兩個半月才與一名學生取得聯繫。即使她媽媽來學校拿筆記本電腦和熱點，情況還是如此。」羅森塔爾說：「這個小女孩有一個不識字的保姆。」所以沒人能幫這個孩子上電腦。」

Another of her students has a single mother who works cleaning hotel rooms; the little girl goes along, and often joins the class from her mother's smartphone. Because of barriers like these, although attendance on her daily Zooms is high, Rosenthal says no more than a fourth of her students have been accessing the written assignments.

她的另一個學生有一個單親媽媽，她在酒店打掃房間；這個小女孩經常跟著她，經常用她媽媽的智慧型手機來上課。羅森塔爾說，由於這樣的障礙，儘管她每天在ZOOM的出勤率很高，但只有不到四分之一的學生獲得了書面作業。

2. Relationships are everything when it comes to keeping kids engaged remotely.

當涉及到讓孩子遠程訂婚時，關係就是一切。

Successful schools are using every adult on the team and every form of communication possible. Theresa Rouse is the superintendent of Joliet Public School District 86 in Illinois, where a majority of the students are low-income and either Latino or Black. She says their focus has been on relationships.

成功的學校利用團隊中的每一個成年人和各種可能的溝通方式。特雷莎·魯斯是伊利諾州喬利特公立學校86區的負責人，那裡大多數學生都是低收入者，要麼是拉丁美洲人，要麼是黑人。她說他們的重點一直放在人際關係上。

The district spent the first three weeks of the school year focusing just on social and emotional learning. Educators communicate expectations to parents and teachers by email, calls, texts, over social media, YouTube videos and podcasts.

該學區在學年的前三周只專注於社交和情感學習。教育工作者通過電子郵件、電話、簡訊、社交媒體、YouTube視頻和播客向家長和教師傳達期望。

And, says Rouse, any adult at a school — from teachers, to the assistant principal, to a school counselor or social worker — might drop in during video class to show they care: "If they're seeing a student that looks distressed, they pull them aside into a breakout room, have a conversation."

而且，魯斯說，學校裡的任何成年人——從老師到助理校長，到學校輔導員或社會工作者——都可能在視頻課上順道來表達他們的關心：「如果他們看到一個學生看起來很沮喪，他們會把他們拉到一個臨時休息室裡，和他們聊聊天。」

In South Carolina, Caroline Weathers usually teaches science at St. George Middle School. This year she created a new role for herself, helping families — sometimes with an app that parents can download to track kids' grades, or with strategies to build kids' executive function skills so they can succeed in remote learning. She says she'd like to continue the role going forward, making parents more active partners in their kids' education and taking learning out into the community as well.

在南卡羅來納州，卡羅琳·韋瑟斯通常在聖喬治中學教科學。有時候，她可以幫助孩子們在這一年裡通過遠程學習幫助孩子們建立新的學習策略。她說，她希望在未來繼續扮演這個角色，讓父母在孩子的教育中成為更積極的合作夥伴，並將學習帶進社區。

"We could take this as a learning moment," Weathers says. "Now we have the parents' attention. So maybe now is the time to really reach out and say, 'this is what we need you to do on your end and we'll take care of this on our end.' And in 10 years, we might see something entirely different in education in the country if we did that."

「我們可以把這當作一個學習的時刻，」韋瑟斯說現在我們得到了父母的注意。所以，也許現在是時候真正伸出援手，說：『這是我們需要你做的，我們會在我們這邊解決這個問題。』10年後，如果我們這樣做，我們可能會看到這個國家的教育出現完全不同的情況。」

3. Digital teaching can be good, even great with the right support for teachers. But that's far from the norm.

數位化教學可以是好的，即使是偉大的，只要有正確的教師支持。但這與正常情況相去甚遠。

Districts like Weathers' and Rouse's are working with the Digital Learning Collaborative, a nonprofit that is dedicated to best practices in digital learning.

像威瑟斯和勞斯這樣的地區正在與數字學習協作組織（digitallearningcollaborative）合作，這是一個致力於數字學習最佳實踐的非營利性組織。

Rouse, in Joliet, calls their training "pretty fabulous" and essential to her district's transition from teaching mainly through paper packets in the spring, to full-on remote using Google Classroom this fall. The training, "was more intense than [teachers] expected it would be, but that's OK because teaching online is more intense than people anticipate as well."

Joliet的Rouse稱他們的培訓「非常棒」，對她所在地區從春季主要通過紙質文件包授課到今年秋季全面遠程使用Google課堂至關重要。這次培訓「比老師們預期的要緊張，但這沒關係，因為在線教學的強度也比人們預期的要高。」

Another organization, Cadence, is also trying to improve digital teaching at scale. They pair "mentor teachers" with "partner teachers" to deliver a standardized curriculum in reading, math and science. The teaching is a high-intensity blend of video lessons, active classroom instruction with breakout sessions and software-based practice.

另一個組織，Cadence，也在努力提高數位化教學的規模。他們將「導師教師」與「夥伴教師」配對，提供閱讀、數學和科學方面的標準化課程。教學是一個高強度的混合視頻課程，積極的課堂教學與分組會議和基於軟體的實踐。

Olyvia Kozicki teaches 5th grade at Augustine Prep, a nondenominational private school in Milwaukee, and is a Cadence partner teacher for English language arts. She says she's overjoyed at the quality and quantity of work her students are producing. It's not only more than she expected from online teaching, "it's more just in general."

奧古斯丁是米爾基學院的一名非託利米尼學院英語預科的合作夥伴。她說她對學生們的工作質量和數量感到非常高興。這不僅超出了她對網絡教學的預期，「總體而言更為公正」

Twice a week, she meets with other Cadence teachers from around the country who are also teaching the exact same material on the same timetable. She says that makes it the most practical and actionable professional education she's ever had.

每周兩次，她會與來自全國各地的其他節奏教師會面，他們也在同一時間表上教授完全相同的材料。她說，這使得這是她所接受過的最實際、最可行的職業教育。

"When we switched to virtual, it was very overwhelming and it seemed like such a daunting task," she said. And now "I am so happy with what the kids have been able to do."

她說：「當我們改用虛擬技術時，這是一項非常艱巨的任務。現在「我對孩子們能做的事感到非常高興。」

Justin Reich says Kozicki's experience is unusual for teachers this year. Reich is an expert on educational technology at MIT and the author of the new book Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can't Transform Education.

賈斯汀·賴奇說，科齊奇今年的經歷對教師來說是不尋常的。Reich是麻省理工學院教育技術方面的專家，也是新書《破壞的失敗：為什麼單靠技術不能改變教育》一書的作者。

He says that across the country this fall, "I've heard very little evidence of innovation." Even moves that might seem relatively simple, like adopting a free, online university-level course for use by high school students, aren't happening often. Mostly, he adds, districts are trying to recreate classroom teaching routines online with varying levels of success.

他說，今年秋天，在全國範圍內，「我幾乎聽不到任何創新的跡象。」即使是看似相對簡單的舉措，比如為高中生開設免費的在線大學課程，也並不經常發生。他補充道，大部分地區都在嘗試重新創建在線課堂教學模式，取得了不同程度的成功。

"I don't think it's getting better because there are major approaches that people have figured out or there's a model that's sort of spreading around," he says. Nor is there a lot of leadership or direction on improving online learning coming from the federal Department of Education or anyone else.

他說：「我不認為它會變得更好，因為人們已經找到了一些主要的方法，或者有一種模式正在傳播開來。」。聯邦教育部或其他任何人也沒有很多關於改進在線學習的領導或方向。

Instead, Reich says, what improvement there has been since last spring comes mainly from teachers like Rosenthal — putting in long hours and learning as they go. "It's just kind of folks sanding down one little rough edge at a time."

相反，Reich說，自去年春天以來，取得的進步主要來自像Rosenthal這樣的老師——投入大量時間，邊走邊學。」只是那種一次磨出一點粗糙邊緣的人。」

4. Hybrid models are extremely challenging.

線上線下混合型教學極具挑戰性。

At last count, according to Burbio, 17.5 percent of districts were offering school in-person just a few days a week, with students learning from home the rest of the time. The purpose was to maintain social distancing by reducing class sizes, but the model has created confusion and constant interruptions. Many students are struggling to adjust to classroom routines when they may attend only five days out of three weeks.

根據Burbio的數據，最後一次統計，17.5%的地區每周只提供幾天親自上學，其餘時間學生都在家裡學習。其目的是通過減少班級規模來保持社會距離，但這種模式造成了混亂和不斷的幹擾。許多學生正努力適應課堂慣例，因為他們可能三周中只有五天上課。

Depending on available staffing, teachers, meanwhile, may be yelling through a mask and face shield to be heard by students over Zoom. Jennifer Echols is the director of online and personalized learning for Mesa Public Schools, the largest school district in Arizona. She calls this model, "one of the biggest challenges" in remote learning right now. Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, has called for this "hybrid" model to be phased out. "Hybrid doesn't work," Weingarten says flatly. "You can't livestream and teach in person at the same time."

同時，根據現有的人員配備，教師可能會通過面罩和面罩大聲喊叫，以便學生聽到。Jennifer Echols是亞利桑那州最大的學區Mesa公立學校在線和個性化學習的主管。她稱這種模式為目前遠程學習中「最大的挑戰之一」。美國教師聯合會主席蘭迪·溫加滕（Randi Weingarten）呼籲逐步取消這種「混合」模式。」「混合模式不起作用，」溫加滕直截了當地說你不能同時直播和親自授課。」

5. Some kids are not learning much online. They'll be playing catchup in years to come.

有些孩子在網上學習不多。在未來的幾年裡，他們將進行追趕。

There are some anecdotes of children who are thriving with remote learning. "There's [approximately] 10 percent of people for whom it works better," says Reich. And for these students, "this is actually a better version of school."

有一些關於孩子們在遠程學習中茁壯成長的軼事。」Reich說：「大約有10%的人對它的效果更好。」。對這些學生來說，「這實際上是一個更好的學校版本。」

Maybe they had school anxiety, he explains, or were victims of bullying or discrimination, or have sensory issues and enjoy having more control over their learning environment.

他解釋說，也許他們有學校焦慮症，或者是欺凌或歧視的受害者，或者有感官問題，喜歡對學習環境有更多的控制。

But districts including Houston, St. Paul, Minn., and Fairfax County, Va., have reported historically high failure rates this fall.

但是，包括休斯頓、明尼蘇達州聖保羅和維吉尼亞州費爾法克斯縣在內的地區，今年秋天的故障率已經達到歷史最高水平。

Echols, in Arizona, says both attendance and engagement in online learning is suffering. "Some kids have had difficulty just paying attention and keeping themselves focused." In other cases, she adds, "we have families where parents are working and there's not the appropriate supervision for young learners, or children that need to be babysitting siblings during the school day."

亞利桑那州的Echols說，在線學習的出勤率和參與度都在下降。」有些孩子很難集中注意力和集中注意力。「在其他情況下，她補充道，」在其他情況下，「我們的家庭中，父母都在工作，沒有適當的監管來照顧年幼的學生，或者孩子們需要在上學期間照看兄弟姐妹。」

What keeps Rosenthal up at night are the kids she just can't reach. Every year, she says, out of a class of 20 or 21, there are five or six students who show up unprepared for kindergarten.

讓羅森塔爾夜不能寐的是她無法聯繫到的孩子們。她說，每年在一個20或21人的班裡，都有五六個學生沒有為上幼兒園做好準備。

"They're struggling, but at least they're with me all day long. And so I can support them six or seven hours a day."

「他們很好動，但至少一整天都在我身邊。我可以帶他們六七個小時每天。」

This year, she sees most of her students learning and growing, despite all the obstacles. But those five or six who started out behind, aren't getting much of anywhere.

今年，她看到了她的大多數學生學習和成長，儘管有一些障礙。但那五六個從後面開始的人，並沒有得到什麼進展。

本文英文來自於英文網站NPR，中文由本人創作。目的在於英語學習使用，如有侵權請告知刪除。