From Ely to Alexandria to Windom, imagine overseeing the complete shutdown of all of the state's public schools on the day the Executive Order from Governor Tim Walz did just that. Learning was lost, -proms and graduations were lost.
Then imagine you need to make sure every kid had the tools and connectivity to even do what soon became known as distance learning.
Minnesota Education Commissioner, Dr. Heather Mueller, is the first to admit it was a tall task. There were significant questions going into this sudden change.
Have the schools had any experience at all with distance learning? Had there been a game plan in place of how to do this? Did educators even know what to do?
“There have been schools that have utilized online learning or some type of online learning environment for a number of years, but to do it at this scale across the state of Minnesota had not been done,” Mueller told WCCO’s Laura Oakes.
Dr. Mueller says with thousands of schools in different states of technology, they needed to move quickly.
“There were some schools that had one-to-one devices in their school districts and charter schools,” Mueller explains. “There were some schools who had very few devices. So we really needed to do a quick assessment and survey around the state to see where our schools were at. How we could partner with community organizations, how we could partner with companies across the United States to try to leverage as many of the funds that our school districts had, and how many funds we have available to us to be able to get devices into the student's hands.”
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Dr. Mueller says the emotional impact of having to do distance learning for so long cannot be underestimated. She said losing that in-person connection was the worst part about the pandemic for students, teachers and staff.
“We also learned that in person instruction is incredibly important, and I think that we will no longer take for granted having school every single day, and recognizing that those relationships that are our students and teachers build with each other, that our students filled with one another, the ability to come together and learn in person, and to ask questions and to be there every single day in that classroom. I think we learned how important that really is.”
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