Hopefully, snow days can become a thing of the past
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When the polar vortex moved across our region last week, bringing beyond frigid temperatures with it, many area school districts cancelled school. However, there was an exception – Seton-La Salle High School in Mt. Lebanon tried its hand at cyber days Jan. 7 and 8.
The private Catholic school had teachers post assignments for each day by 10 a.m. In order for students to be counted as present for the day, they had to log on by noon and complete their work by 5 p.m. on the day that it was assigned. Students and teachers were also able to communicate via email or Google chat.
According to Seton-La Salle principal Lauren Martin, cyber days were implemented so that the snow days would not have to be made up. While there are still some kinks in the system to be worked out, Martin felt that the initial cyber days were a success.
Cyber days are an initiative that we hope catches on around our region. Many adults are able to telecommute if need be, and due to the weather, many did last week – in fact, we here at The Almanac were thankful to be able to telecommute when a pipe burst in our building and flooded our office.
For students, cyber days are the best of both worlds – students have time to sleep in and play in the snow, and because they are getting school work done, they don’t have to extend their school year into the summer to make up for those days.
Currently, it seems that only private schools are going to be able to implement cyber days – most public schools have not issued Google Chromebooks or other laptops to every single student, as Seton-La Salle has. Ensuring that every student has Internet access at home also poses a challenge. And, cyber days are easier to accomplish at the high school level than on a district-wide, K-12 level.
The good news is as technology evolves, it’s more likely that public schools will end up with grants or other funding to issue each student a laptop – obviously, we realize that it may take decades for that to happen.
But, it’s not out of the question. As little as 15 years ago, telecommuting on the professional level was largely a concept out of “The Jetsons.”