AUSD Coordinates Tech Resource Distribution for Remote Learning

By Myroslava Fisun, Nat James, Tatiana Lira

Due to the shelter-in-place order resulting from COVID-19, Albany Unified School District students who had previously relied on in-person learning abruptly lost access to both human and technological school resources. However, tech distribution efforts by Albany High School staff have helped many students receive the technology they need during this pandemic.

With school now fully online and all instruction taking place remotely, the need for technology has skyrocketed. Some families discovered that their single home computer now needed to be shared among multiple family members, creating an untenable situation: Required synchronous learning as well as electronic textbooks and web-based homework assignments meant that students needed full-time access to both computers and reliable internet.

This created an urgent dilemma: what can be done for students who do not have sufficient—or any—access to the technology they need to learn from home?

In August, once the decision to continue with remote learning in the fall had been made, AUSD superintendent Frank Wells sent out an email outlining the revised plan for remote learning and reassuring worried families that the district would “ensure all students have consistent access to a Chromebook and internet” through the provision of WiFi hotspots and school-owned laptops.

So far, according to a report from AHS Principal Darren McNally, AHS has distributed approximately 230 Chromebooks. McNally also adds that the check-out process for Chromebooks has not changed much since in-person learning.

AHS staff “intentionally made the process as much like checking out a library book as we could, to make it easier for students,” McNally said.

Much like the Google form students could fill out to request to pick up a book from the library, a Google form has been made for school-owned Chromebook requests as well.

AUSD does not charge fees to students for any of the technology. The district is allowing students to use these computers and WiFi hotspots as long as they need them to access class and complete schoolwork, which means as long as AUSD offers any type of remote learning.

While there remain concerns about adequate access, especially for Albany’s most vulnerable families, these steps help ensure that more students have access to remote learning, an important step towards equity in education during one of the district’s most challenging times.