Schools move to add more mobile hot spots
Chromebooks also to be offered for virtual classes
Schools, libraries and nonprofits have handed out mobile hot spots to keep students connected to the virtual classroom.
But there are going to be technology issues when Milwaukee Public Schools, the largest school district in the state, goes virtual, said Ben Ward, executive director of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association.
“I would assume there’s significant challenges,” Ward said.
MPS will temporarily transition to virtual learning, beginning Tuesday. The district’s goal is to resume in-person learning Jan. 10.
This year, MPS has said, it plans to distribute up to 9,900 more hot spots and 56,000 Chromebooks, in addition to the thousands of devices already provided students. The effort is being funded by a $14 million federal grant.
There are about 60,000 Milwaukee households that don’t have an adequate means to get online at home, according to the nonprofit Digital Bridge, so for many families, the mobile devices provided by schools are essential.
“I think on the whole we are doing quite well,” in keeping up with the demand, said Bob Peterson, Milwaukee Public Schools Board president.
“I don’t imagine us being virtual for a long period of time,” Peterson said, but if more mobile devices are needed, the district will supply them.
“We want every child to have their own Chromebook,” he said.
The Kenosha Unified School District is in much better shape technologywise than it was a year ago, said Kendra Mulwana, executive director of the Kenosha Education Association that represents the district’s teachers.
“It isn’t necessarily easy or convenient to quickly pivot to virtual learning, but we have much more experience in that environment now,” Mulwana said.
“We can get technology and tech support to people very quickly,” she said.
The Greendale School District’s elementary students will return to inperson learning Tuesday, while its middle and high school students will be in virtual learning the rest of the week.
Every student in the district has a Chromebook or an iPad assigned to them, said Superintendent Kim Amidzich.
For mobile hot spots, Amidzich said, the district opens its technology office so that students and families can pick up a device to take home.
City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee nonprofit focused on education, has provided several thousand hot spots, and paid for 12 months of the service, for needy families.
Digital Bridge, a nonprofit that distributes refurbished computers to other nonprofits and needy families, has nearly tripled the size of its operation during the pandemic.
The Milwaukee Public Library system has seen its online usage soar as more people have turned to the neighborhood branches for internet access. The libraries aren’t open as early in the day as when school starts, but they remain open after the school day ends so that students have a place to do their homework.
The library system has doubled the number of mobile hot spots it allows patrons to check out and now has nearly 400 Chromebooks, an affordable alternative to Windows-based laptops, available as well.
“But we never have enough hot spots,” said Library Director Joan Johnson.
Long term, that’s also not a permanent solution for households to get online.
“High-speed internet access needs to be a utility not a luxury,” Johnson said.