Fort Worth parents, students face technical difficulties on 1st day of online learning
Parents and students were frustrated Tuesday morning as they faced internet connectivity issues on the first day of virtual learning in Dallas-Fort Worth, although many said they appreciated help from teachers in resolving the problems.
The Fort Worth Independent School District website was down for part of the morning, and some students had issues logging on or could not log on at all to virtual learning.
Fort Worth ISD posted on its Facebook page Tuesday morning about the issue. “As of an hour ago, the Fort Worth ISD website has experienced slow loading or a failure to load,” the post said about 9:15 a.m.
Tuesday’s technical problem came from a website vendor who also serves Dallas ISD and Houston ISD, which had the same problems, said Clint Bond, a FWISD spokesman. Fort Worth ISD told students they could bypass the district website and access Classlink directly by going to launchpad.classlink.com/fortworth.
Bond said the FWISD website was back up and accessible as of 11:45 a.m.
“It never had any impact on our learning platforms,” Bond said. “All of those are on a different server from another, separate provider.”
But some parents said their kids could not sign on all day.
Amber Lee’s 10-year-old daughter was in tears when she was unable to log onto the learning portal for the entire day. Lee had her daughter start reading some books for class instead.
“She loves school. She was looking forward to it,” Lee said.
But Lee’s 7-year-old son had no problem logging into his class, although he struggled to stay focused. Especially as Lee tried to help her daughter, her son was distracted. That makes Lee worry how well he is going to learn for the next few weeks, but she also said the technical difficulties and distractions are not the district’s fault.
Her children’s teachers worked all summer to prepare for the school year, she said. At least the first four weeks of classes will be online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The only thing you can blame is the pandemic,” Lee said.
Eboni Parker said her 7-year-old son’s teachers were also communicating with students leading up to his first day. Parker’s son is enrolled in Leadership Academy at Maude I. Logan, and she sends him to ABC Christian Learning in order to have a more structured environment for virtual learning. She said as far as she knew, he did not have any problems, but she is worried how the next few weeks will go.
Parker said her son is a “hyper 7-year-old” and she had problems with online learning at the end of last school year.
“I would like to see him getting back (to school) in the next couple weeks,” she said.
Parents with older students also faced some difficulties signing in through the Fort Worth ISD website Tuesday morning. Rosalinda Martinez, who has a sophomore and junior who attend North Side High School, said the experience was overall pretty positive — after her kids were able to get through to the website. She said it took both of them 10 to 15 minutes to log in, and her daughter was “freaking out.”
“This morning, it was a little bit hectic. There is a time they had to check in,” she said. “I think for me, I was kind of stressed because I’m working from home too. For them to keep asking me for help and tech support, I have no idea what I’m doing either, but I’m trying to keep calm.”
Chris Benton’s daughter is a senior at Benbrook High School. Benton said she logged in easily, and her teacher explained that they were going to work through any problems together since logistical issues were to be expected. The teacher also called on students individually to make sure they were paying attention. But he noticed most of the students had their cameras off.
“How do you know that kid didn’t hop on and then went back to bed?” he said.
Benton said while he understands why the district decided to have students do virtual learning, he does not agree with it. On Tuesday morning, he went to a Whataburger in Fort Worth and saw a young boy asleep at a table. When Benton asked about him, the boy’s mother said she was not able to leave him home alone to do virtual learning because she works at the restaurant.
“That one kid in Whataburger, there are probably a couple hundred more like that,” he said. “I hate that these younger kids are going to get left behind.”
Other parents recently protested the district’s decision to have students learn online until at least Oct. 5 — although that date is subject to change based on COVID-19 numbers.
This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 10:41 AM.
