Abstract:

During the 2019-2020 school year New York State ordered schools to close their gates and to cease in-person instruction. Educational leaders of public and private schools frantically searched for remote-learning modalities. While Zoom and other Internet-based video technologies provided access for students in many communities, some Orthodox Jews – like other traditional segments of society – had reservations about the usage of the Internet for any reason in general and as an educational tool for young children in particular. This reservation led a number of schools to use audio conferencing tools. Although these tools use Internet technology that enables the teacher or instructional leader to see the list of participants, students can access the educational sessions/classes using only a phone line.

This research is a quantitative analyses of longitudinal access data of fourth grade boys (n=22) from an Orthodox Jewish private school in the Brooklyn borough of New York City during the last month of the 2019-2020 school year (5/18/20 - 6/18/20). Results show a significant and quantifiable decline both in students’ access to the sessions and in the duration of these calls. Potential explanations for the findings, their implication, and the limitation of the study are discussed. Although data for this study was gathered from a community that limited itself to the use of a phone system for ideological reasons, it is likely that similar pattern of decline would be observable in other communities that have no access to the Internet for technical or economic reasons.

Keywords:

Covid-19, elementary education, remote learning.