Madison Bradbury

April 14, 2022

Professor Alexander

Inquiry Written Report

Remote Learning In Kindergarten

I chose the topic of remote learning and how it affects kindergarteners because COVID-

19 has been a big issue over the past couple of years. We have all had to adapt to new ways of

living, especially as students. I think this is a very important topic to focus on, especially because

online learning is going to continue to grow each and every day as well as the outcome of how

students gain knowledge through online learning and if it is beneficial or not.

Covid has only been around for the past few years, so there is not much research out there

on how remote learning has affected children's development and progression throughout their

schooling in the future. However, in my research, I found a lot of information on how teachers

and students have adapted to online learning and the overall pros and cons. As well, I was able to

interview two teachers one on one and ask questions about their own personal experiences with

teaching online. Each teacher I interviewed taught in two completely different school systems

and in different income areas.

Beginning with the current literature, there are more cons than pros when it looking into

remote learning in kindergarten rather than high school. The research I found showed a lot of

positivity towards teachers and students being able to learn more about technology and how it

works through teaching online. Also, online learning allows teachers to be more creative with
their lesson plans because you need to still teach a standard and have your students engaged

throughout your lesson. However, there is the downfall that you are online and are restricted with

the number of activities you can do, especially in kindergarten. For the cons of online teaching,

there was a lot of background information on why there are so many downfalls in remote

learning, starting with parent participation. Especially kindergarteners are not responsible enough

to do online work themselves and log on to zoom meetings, they need full participation from

parents. This is a downfall in some aspects because not all parents are available during the day

and they are committed to working. This creates a lack of participation in online learning and

less of a chance your students will gain knowledge from remote learning.

Secondly, Not every student has a device or internet to complete online schooling. When

completing my interviews I found out that some schools did give their students Ipads to bring

home during covid, but not every school could do this for every student. Even if you are given an

iPad to bring home, not every child is going to have internet access at their home, creating

another downfall in remote learning.

For my first interview, I talked with and questioned Beth Leary from Educare in

Waterville. She works with kindergarteners and I designed a list of questions I wanted to ask her

that I thought would benefit me in this project. I asked about designing activities and lesson

plans for online learning and how they approached doing so when not every child could access

those materials and supplies. She said their program gave each child a backpack full of supplies

that they could bring home, as well as an iPad. Beth said that her biggest struggle with teaching

online was participation and behavior. She mentioned again how parents are mostly responsible

for helping their children access online learning, but not every parent was available during those

times, leaving her with less than 50% of participation within the first year of covid.
 In my second interview with Lori Fowler who teaches at Montello in Lewiston, she

explained a lot of negativity towards online learning rather than positives. She expressed that

because she is teaching in such a diverse location and great poverty, she experiences a lot of

children not being able to access online knowledge from home. Lori said she strayed away from

zoom meetings and used a platform called Seesaw. This platform allows her to create lesson

plans and create her own videos of reading or demonstrations of how to complete simple

activities. This platform was something I have never heard of before and I think this was the

most positive thing I got out of my online learning research. Even though this platform is simple

and allows you to be creative and show examples to your students, not every child could access it

or did not try to. As well as being in such a diverse location, she has students in her class who

only spoke Portuguese and no English. Lori said that this was the biggest struggle for her

because she did not have a translator and could not communicate with the parents because they

did not speak any English either.

Overall this project was very beneficial to me and I gained a lot of knowledge from my

research and interviews. I especially enjoyed this topic because I want to teach kindergarten and

with covid still being very prominent today, I think knowing more about how to approach online

learning is very useful to me. I especially enjoyed doing my interviews because even though I

found current research online, I was able to hear personally from teachers who have experienced

this and there was no filter when listening to this information. My favorite interview was with

Lori because she teaches in such a diverse location and she not only experienced normal

struggles of online learning, she experienced different types of learning and developmental

stages with children who are in poverty and ranged in diversity. As well as Lori is an older

teacher and had been teaching for over 25 years, she has had the experience and has knowledge
of how classrooms have developed throughout the years and how online learning is affecting

children’s learning ability and development.

 Bibliography:

● https://www.aplustopper.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-online-classes/

● https://app.seesaw.me/#/activities/library?seesaw&grade_level=K\

● https://corp.kaltura.com/blog/advantages-disadvantages-online-classes/

Interviews:

● Beth Leary (Educare, Waterville ME)

● Lori Fowler (Montello, Lewiston ME)