An innovative approach to online teaching

School districts are struggling this fall with trying to simultaneously teach students in the classroom and students at home.

The Northern Ozaukee School District in Fredonia has come up with a solution that other districts and even local colleges are looking to emulate.

District Information Technology Director Dan Schreurs cobbled together 60-some remote learning stations, each consisting of a Chromebook tablet, an omni-directional microphone and a television monitor and mounted them on a vertical stand on wheels.

The stations allow students at home to watch teachers in the classroom in real time, enabling them to keep pace with their classmates. 

“We want them to be part of the class, go at the same pace, hear the same lessons from the teacher and be able to do that same work,” Supt. Dave Karrels said.

“When they are able to return, they are able to jump right in, and they haven’t fallen behind.”

Teachers don’t have to change the way they teach for at-home students.

“And if things really go bad (with the virus),” Schreurs said, teachers can take the devices home and teach from there.

The set-up also makes it easy for teachers to take attendance and keep at-home students accountable since they can see them on the monitor.

“It has built-in accountability,” Karrels said.

The devices cost the district about $15,000, paid for with money from federal and state sources that reimburse the district for Covid-19-related expenses.

The Chromebooks came from the district’s on-hand supply, but buying the other equipment, especially the microphones, took some doing. 

“They were very hard to come by. We couldn’t order from any of our normal vendors,” Schreurs said.

“They were back ordered three months. Best Buy had them, but you could only buy three at a time.”

Using various school accounts, Schreurs and other school staff members made multiple trips to as many Best Buy stores as they could to acquire the necessary number of microphones.

“For two weeks, we bought three every day. I had some of my kids take them home to try out on their video games to make sure they worked OK,” he said.

Schreurs said he got the idea for the devices from talking to his wife Melissa, a fourth-grade teacher at Ozaukee Elementary School.

“We kind of circled into this set up, just seeing what she and other teachers do,” he said. “They didn’t really have to adjust how they were teaching.”

Schreurs’ invention has gotten attention from other school districts and a couple colleges in Milwaukee.

“It’s been neat to see Dan’s creative thinking get some recognition,” Karrels said.