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Distance Learning: The Students' View From Home

Sandra Averhart
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WUWF Public Media

With public schools closed at least through the end of April due to the coronavirus, the Escambia County School District and others across the region have quickly geared up to deliver virtual instruction to students.

I recently checked in on two of my young relatives, to get their view from home. First, my nephew, the high schooler.

“So, first Escambia has their own website, for their work; it’s called Canvas,” said soon to be 16-year-old Keondre, a 10th-grader at Escambia High School.

Credit Photo courtesy of Stephanie Averhart
Keondre is a 10th-grader at Escambia High School.

Sitting at the kitchen table, across from his 9-year-old sister, Shamiyah, he opens his Chromebook and shows me the Canvas Dashboard that displays his courses for the semester.

“We have everything set up, where have our classes, courses, everything that we take. And, you can click on either one of them and just see what work is there,” Keondre began to explain. “So, for biology, you go to assignments. And, it’s basically the same thing for every class."

On the screen is a series of colorful, rectangular tiles representing classes that Keondre is taking. The required biology - a shade of green - is the first online course he comes to. There’s also a vertical sidebar, where he can access links to his courses, user groups, calendar, message inbox and help, if he encounters a problem.

“Good afternoon, Gators. It’s Mr. Murphy,” said Escambia Principal Frank Murphy opening a video message he posted as schools were gearing up for distance learning. He laid out what his students could expected over the next few weeks and offered assurance that their transition should be a smooth one, based on what they’ve already been doing.

“I’m confident that each of us will work through this virtual education platform, because, quite frankly, you’ve been exposed to it through your Canvas accounts, through your Google Classrooms that your teachers use on a daily basis,” Murphy said.

“We do most of our work on line,” acknowledged Keondre. “We’d rather use paper. But, mostly over the break, we already had assignments for spring break. But, now that it’s permanent now, we really have to be on it.”

For Keondre, who needed a charger for his Chromebook before he could get back to work, Friday was his first real day of virtual learning during the extended closure.

“Today I worked on my Driver’s Ed. We had to take a quiz on it. I got a 100 on that,” he said with a subtle brag. “It was like matching definitions with the words, and yeah, I got a hundred. Secondly, I did my Honors 2."

Credit Sandra Averhart / WUWF Public Media
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WUWF Public Media
Escambia High School sophomore Keondre links to his Digital Design class; his avatar is a warrior.

That’s English Honors 2. Keondre is also taking Geometry. Digital Design is one of his electives.

“This is Classcrafts. It’s for digital design. And, this is where we turn our work in on this. So, in class, we’ll come in and log in, and we’ll have a daily thing that we have to do. And, we get XP (extra points) for different types of things we do,” said Keondre.

“This is my avatar, right here.”

His choice for avatar is an armored, shield-wielding, warrior.

Rounding out his class schedule is a sign language course and basketball.

Before spring break and school closures to slow the spread of coronavirus, Keondre started and ended his day with the sport he loves. It was his first period class and he spent many days after school at practices and games for the school’s Junior Varsity team. The 2019-2020 season wrapped just before state and federal officials got serious about COVID-19.

He hopes to make varsity next year.

Credit Photo courtesy of Stephanie Averhart
Fifteen-year-old Keondre and his 9-year-old sister, Shamiyah, pose for a photo as they headed to class on the first day of the 2019-2020 school year. Now, due to the coronavirus, they're learning from home.

For now, though, basketball is his ‘backyard’ exercise and release at the end of the day after his online assignments are completed.

He knows that his academic success, in these unprecedented times, is really up to him.

“You’re going go have to be more responsible about your work and you can’t rely on Mom or any authorities to tell you,” Keondre proclaimed. “You have to really take it into your own hands.”

As to how the next month or so will go, he says no one knows, “I really can’t say, but right now I think everybody’s adjusting to it.”

His response to whether he thinks he’ll be able to keep up, “Yeah, I will.”

A plus, he says, is that students will have their coursework at their fingertips, with Canvas available as an App on their smart phones. 

Next time, we'll go from the 10th grade to 3rd grade to focus on the distance learning for Keondre's sister (my niece), Shamiyah.

Sandra Averhart has been News Director at WUWF since 1996. Her first job in broadcasting was with (then) Pensacola radio station WOWW107-FM, where she worked 11 years. Sandra, who is a native of Pensacola, earned her B.S. in Communication from Florida State University.