Logan students adjust to new online frontier but it might take longer for parents

Hundreds of passwords were re-rest and IT departments were run off their feet but there were no detentions when high school students in Logan logged on for their first day of learning from home.

Teachers at Marsden State High School kept their distance during the day, in which students were able to learn everything from maths, science, PE and even juggling.

TEACHERS are still adjusting to the new frontiers of online classrooms after the first day of home school lessons for the country’s millions of students.

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For the first time, parents had to take the reins in the classrooms of the new world, unable to blame teachers solely for their child’s lack of academic progress.

Parents in Logan, south of Brisbane, said their biggest frustration was dealing with children who were easily distracted while navigating the Education Department’s website.

After an early glitch with the Department’s online classroom platform crashing, the majority of state school children across Logan were logged on and learning by 9.30am.

Beenleigh State High IT technician David Carlisle who helped students get access to computer programs.

Beenleigh State High School principal Matt O’Hanlon said his IT department was kept busy fielding calls from parents and making sure all students could log on.

“We had 98 staff at school and about 100 students on site so it was pretty hectic to start with after the computer glitches,” Mr O’Hanlon said.

“There were a few issues with parents not understanding how to log on but by the end of the day it felt like everyone had got the hang of it.

“It all ended well – and there were no detentions,” he quipped.

Beenleigh State High School cleaner Mandie Pinnow cleaning ‘high touch’ areas.

The school bought reconstructed computers from nearby social enterprise Substation 33 to hand out to needy students.

Mr O’Hanlon said staff had devised a "workaround” for the school’s MasterChef program with students cooking their assessment dishes at home and posting photographs for their teacher to judge.

Loganlea State High principal Brenton Farleigh said 47 students attended the school adhering to the strict 12-student per classroom rule.

Loganlea State High principal Brenton Farleigh said thanked parents after the first day of online learning.

“After the initial logging-on issues, everyone started adapting and there were a lot of adjustments but everyone now understands you have to be ready for the unpredictable.”

Marsden State High school’s IT department was kept busy all day with the school’s Facebook manager Kim Chadburn having to reset more than 100 passwords throughout the day.

Principal Andrew Peach said the day’s learning went as well as could be expected.

Marsden State High School principal Andrew Peach said students were coming to grips with online lessons – including his tutorial on learning how to juggle.

“We had 200 students on site along with 300 staff and there was a big focus on monitoring safe and healthy social distancing,” he said.

“I am sure online learning will be being refined every day.”

Not all of Marsden’s online lessons followed the traditional reading, writing and arithmetic subjects.

Mr Peach also posted his extracurricular lesson on learning how to juggle.

Tomorrow Marsden PE teacher Matt Hartigan will test out running a Facebook live physical education class for the entire school.

Students at John Paul College, Kimberley College and Canterbury College will start the term tomorrow.