Thanks to to a pilot program, Anderson School District 5 students may not be quite as excited about snow days this year.
The school district has been chosen as the first eLearning program site in South Carolina, a program aimed
at continuing classroom instruction on days when inclimate weather, power outages or other factors prevent the district from holding a traditional school day.
The eLearning Day will be announced through local media and the district's website on such days, and students will be required to use their Chromebooks to access their electronic assignments through Google Classroom. Google allows teachers to provide lessons, resources and support for students remotely, while students are able to submit assignments through the program. Internet connectivity is not required, since the lessons are preloaded for this program as part of the regular lesson schedule.
"We have made a significant investment into not only our technology here in Anderson 5, but also our people," said Anderson County School District 5 Superintendent Tom Wilson. "I think we are well suited to carry out this program next school year.”
Wilson said the program will allow the district to avoid the scheduling challenges traditionally posed by finding suitable time for makeup days.
The district has investedmore than $11 million in Chromebooks over the past five years, and has expanded staffto include digital integration specialists in all schools.
“At the end of the day, it makes common sense and financial sense to implement this program,” Wilson said. "No longer will we need to run buses in mid-June for a makeup day that only a quarter of our students attend. We have the resources in Anderson 5, and doing this allows us to utilize those resources to their fullest extent.”