To cover remote learning effectively, go narrow and deep

A veteran journalist explains how to cover a complicated, multipronged issue that changes from city to city. 

By Wayne D’Orio

Even as schools move toward reopening for in-person instruction, some form of remote learning is likely to continue not only during the remainder of this school year, but beyond.

A new RAND survey showed that nearly 4 in 10 school districts expect to continue some form of remote learning next year.

However, creating smart, useful coverage of remote learning is no easy task, given the large variations in remote programs across districts and states and the lack of data to show trends.

As a longtime reporter of ed tech, I’ve seen (and written) too many stories that focused on various computer makers and platforms and less on how all that work ends up translating to what students actually experience.

Sweeping overviews — also common — are hamstrung by a lack of national statistics, superficiality, and the inability of reporters to connect easily with students learning from their bedrooms.

Frank Catalano, a columnist for EdSurge and an industry consultant, is blunt about what he sees: Entirely too much coverage of devices and connectivity and too little digging into how schools and teachers are adapting to deliver remote learning lessons. Reporters need to push past who’s connected to delve into how teachers are changing their practices.

By comparison, the best stories I’ve seen are the ones that illuminate a small aspect of a technology-aided instructional effort rather than attempt to cover the entire endeavor superficially.

Successful examples explore more specific topics, like how teachers get kids to turn their cameras on, how a building manager struggles to install Wi-Fi for homeless students, or how teachers go door-to-door to ensure students log in to school.

When it comes to reporting on remote instruction itself, the best stories emerge when reporters look closely at what exemplary teachers are doing. “This is like a boat that capsized,” said Doug Casey, the executive director of Connecticut’s Commission for Education Technology. “You can see which teachers are flailing and which are swimming. We need to study the form of teachers who are doing a strong job.”

According to Casey, reporters should be asking more questions about what the best remote learning practices are and what the exemplary teachers are doing.

The best stories I’ve seen are the ones that illuminate a small aspect of a technology-aided instructional effort rather than attempt to cover the entire endeavor superficially. 

Based on what I’ve seen, even the best reporters struggle to cover remote learning effectively.

Take for example USA Today’s recent story about which students had broadband. While admirable for its ambition and scope, the story highlights the problems of trying to cover this issue nationwide.

Erin Richards, Elinor Aspegren, and Erin Mansfield nimbly cobble together a variety of stats to try to paint a national picture about the lack of connectivity.

They use statistics and (duly noted) guesses from sources as diverse as EducationSuperHighway to Microsoft to Burbio, a company that tracks districts’ reopening plans, to show which areas still don’t offer students broadband access.

By zeroing in on specifics at spots across the country, from Los Angeles and Chicago to East Ramapo, New Jersey, and San Luis, Colorado, the story manages to convey the spottiness of most schools’ progress.

The story is valuable for what it does reveal, and how it specifically mentions the Federal Communications Commission dropped the ball on gathering home internet statistics for years. It’s worthwhile to take a hard look at the problem even if it can’t offer readers all the answers.

But at nearly every turn, the reporters are hamstrung by a lack of data. They aren’t able to say with any certainty what percentage of students nationwide have or don’t have broadband access.

“Most of us can’t consistently get into people’s houses” to see how remote learning is going, Richards told me, which makes it harder to see what’s going on and to hold districts accountable. And reporting on connectivity is difficult because it’s an amorphous issue. “You can’t go to just one reliable source for solid answers,” Richards said.

Successful examples explore more specific topics, like how teachers get kids to turn their cameras on, how a building manager struggles to install Wi-Fi for homeless students, or how teachers go door-to-door to ensure students log in to school.

From his perch in Seattle, Catalano praised stories that dive deep into a particular aspect of remote instruction, such as showing how hard it is for teachers to get students to turn their cameras on.

This mundane but essential task is the focus of one of Joy Resmovits’ last stories with The Seattle Times. Resmovits said stories like this one were only possible because her Education Lab teammates Hannah Furfaro and Dahlia Bazzaz were writing about reopening and the science of teaching in person. “If you have limited capacity, you don’t have the capacity to ask those questions,” she added.

She admitted the lack of data about remote learning was frustrating, but that constant queries from Education Lab forced the state to finally put out weekly reports showing which students were back in school. “My responsibility is to at least try to mop up all the breadcrumbs that are shooting out and make sense of it all together, while questioning [the data],” she said. “It feels like holding a lot of spinning dishes in your brain and I don’t know if I did it so successfully.”

Catalano also appreciated former KNKX Tacoma-Seattle education reporter Ashley Gross’ piece on the delicate dance of restarting in-person education, which mixed the awkwardness of returning to school (masks and temperature checks for students) with the choice facing teachers with health issues, which was to take unpaid leave or return to the classroom. .

Catalano singled out Gross’ ongoing coverage of remote learning, crediting her with having “routinely covered the nuance.” Other stories of hers to admire include a look at the difficulties of moving and starting a new school during a pandemic and a “day in the life” piece from a Tacoma 7th grader.

As hard as this topic may be to cover, there are plenty of angles still available to reporters. Other stories that I’ve seen that did impressive work choosing a narrow focus and digging into the details include Bekah McNeel’s piece for The 74 about teachers in San Antonio going door-to-door to cajole students to rejoin their school’s remote learning.

McNeel depicts the slog of pounding the pavement in neighborhoods both poor and rich, the moments of levity that break through to create connections, and her story ties all the work back to the school’s outstanding attendance rate. (Full disclosure: I sometimes freelance stories for The 74.)

Other stories that paid off by looking at just one corner of the remote learning issue include a New York Times article by Andy Newman that detailed how slow the city was to add Wi-Fi to homeless shelters and then highlighted how some owners of shelters were bypassing the city to do the job cheaper and faster themselves.

Also, Art Raymond of the Deseret News in Utah explained how a 12-school district outside Salt Lake City created its own high-speed internet service for its students. The district uses radio transmitters to connect with school-issued devices that serve as a wireless model for the student’s home.

Catalano praised stories that dive deep into a particular aspect of remote instruction, such as showing how hard it is for teachers to get students to turn their cameras on.

The USA Today piece mentioned above included some advice aimed at districts that could double for reporters.

In the story, Vikki Katz, a communications professor at Rutgers University, said connectivity questions to students and their families have to be specific.

“It’s not enough, especially in a low-income district, to ask, ‘Do you have internet access?’ ” The better questions are: “Do you have internet access that’s fast enough for the things you need? How many times has that connection been disconnected in the last 12 months?”

Catalano also had ideas for future stories, saying reporters should find out how many schools bought devices that haven’t been handed out or started software subscription services that aren’t being used.

“Journalists should look for the lumps,” Catalano said. Remote learning and the digital divide “is like oatmeal that hasn’t been cooked properly. Don’t go surface level, poke your spoon around to find the lumps.”

Related pieces from The Grade:

No, asking questions about remote learning isn’t ‘teacher bashing’ 

Edtech coverage, the hype cycle, and media complicity (featuring Doug Levin)

Thoughts on education journalism (featuring Audrey Watters)

The New York Times wrote a big story about online learning in Kansas. It didn’t go well. 

Wanted: updated reports on district remote learning efforts

Problems with the New York Times’ Google takeover story