Computer glitches disrupt classes as schools return online
MIAMI (AP) — As millions of American youngsters start the school year with online classes at home because of the coronavirus, they are running into technical glitches and other headaches that have thrust many a harried parent into the role of teacher’s aide and tech support person.
A ransomware attack forced schools in Hartford, Connecticut, to postpone the start of online and in-person classes this week. Seattle’s system crashed last week, and a Zoom outage caused it to shut down for more than two hours in August. An online learning program used in Alabama and other places recently crashed. North Carolina’s platform went down on the first day of classes last month.
Amanda Mills’ 8-year-old son, Rowan, woke up excited Tuesday to start his first day of third grade, even though it was online through Idaho’s largest school district, based in the town of Meridian just outside Boise.
They had practiced logging in and accessing the software the day before, and everything had seemed to go smoothly. But then on the first day, some of the websites the West Ada School District was using were running slowly, and a national outage of the online learning interface Blackboard prevented many kids from accessing their classes at all.
“Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out and we’ll make it work however we can, and rely on the patience of those teachers who are up against their own obstacles," said. “It’s a weird, wild world right now.”
Erik Rasmussen, a Falls Church, Virginia, resident who has three children taking online classes, said he regularly copes with computer glitches and short attention spans. The divorced dad has his children half the time.
“You put your kids in front of the computer, and then I go to do my work, but kids are kids -- they’re going to turn off the video function and start...
