Teachers replaced by computers in Miami-Dade schools

I hadn't seen a thread on this, so I thought I'd share. In order to get around legislation that limits class sizes, some classes in Miami-Dade are being taught in virtual classrooms, with up to 40 students in front of computers and a "facilitator" who makes sure the kids are working and they can address technical issues, but nothing about the subject matter.

Link to NYT article

Yikes! I hope this isn't a new trend in education.

Re: Teachers replaced by computers in Miami-Dade schools

WOW is all I can say. That is a horrible path to go down.

Re: Teachers replaced by computers in Miami-Dade schools

Thanks to Bill Gates, et al, this is the future of education. The facilitator probably costs a lot less money than a teacher, and for 40 kids, you'd need more than one.

Fortunately, if your child is in a reasonably-well performing suburban district, you don't need to worry so much. Suburban parents would throw a fit. We're only going to see this sort of thing in large, urban districts where the kids don't do well "because of the teachers" and where parents can't or won't speak out because they may not know it's bad.

Re: Teachers replaced by computers in Miami-Dade schools

I was listening to the teacher's lounge gossip in a school district I sub in. Apparently this was brought up by one of their board members. Basically the sentiment was that anyone can do a teacher's job.

I really hope something changes before my child enters school in 2016.