On March 10, Head of School Dr. Alex Curtis notified the Choate community that the School would switch to online learning amid the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, to safeguard the health of students, faculty, and staff.
In the weeks since, many members of the community have expressed concerns about how the change will limit the Choate experience. Dean of Students Mr. Mike Velez ’00 said recently, “There was a level of confidence that the faculty and staff had the capacity to deliver a rigorous academic program, complemented by extracurricular programming, that would allow our students to enjoy continued growth.”
In a period of four days in mid-March, the Information and Technology Services (ITS) Department met daily with the Academic Technology Department to discuss remote-learning options available to Choate. The primary goal was to create a safe and productive environment for faculty and students to teach and learn, and the effort resulted in the introduction of two major communication platforms: Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
What used to be in-person classes and meetings are now held through the virtual platform Zoom. Not only have classes been moved online, but all of the administrative offices have also had to adjust to this situation. The faculty and administration have remained active in discussions regarding how to best support all members of the Choate community.
Zoom proved complicated to set up. Head of the ITS Department Mr. Andrew Speyer said, “With the Eight Schools Association, we figured out the number of licensed accounts and created free accounts for the faculty. We claimed any Zoom account that ends in @choate.edu. The management of all the IDs and links was a little tricky, and that’s where the Choate Programming Union helped us out. Overall, it’s been a team effort.”
When introducing Zoom to the Choate community for the first time, ITS directly trained department heads on the basics, who then trained the rest of the faculty in small groups.
Mr. Speyer also introduced Microsoft Teams to the Choate community. “I implemented Microsoft Teams a year and a half ago,” Mr. Speyer said. “It’s been my dream to get the School into one place where we could do a lot more electronic conversations and small group work together.”
He hopes people will be able to learn how to better use the technology by collaborating on the platform. “One of my goals was to have students and adults post their tech questions in a group space and not always rely on IT to answer the questions, and use the concept of the wisdom of the crowd, which has been very successful,” said Mr. Speyer.
Now, ITS is not only available through Microsoft Teams, but they have also hosted daily video calls with Academic Technology and the Andrew Mellon Library to discuss and administer support to faculty and students.
Throughout its planning, ITS found the small amount of time given and adaptation to new resources challenging. However, they were able to execute a successful plan that students and faculty at Choate are grateful to use. “Choate is a very organic place. Unlike some other schools, we’re very open to trying something new,” said Mr. Speyer. “I would like to thank the whole Choate community for their patience and support and for doing their best and making things work. We’re having school across the globe and still having a Choate experience.”
