E-learning Days|Bye Bye Snow Days?

E-learning Days Are a Growing National Trend|No More Playing In The Snow?

Anyone who lives or grew up in the snow belt of the United States knows the thrilling feeling of waking up on a winter morning on a school day and seeing a blanket of snow quietly muffling your entire neighborhood. Quickly you rush to the TV set and anxiously watch the news scroll across the bottom of the screen while each school district is alphabetically listed on status for delay or closed for the entire day. Are those days soon to be gone forever? It remains to be seen but as evidence of the article below, and thanks to E-Learning technology, it may soon be necessary to do your homework before you bundle up to go sledding.

Will E-Learning Make Snow Days a Thing of the Past? Read More below…

Daily Herald file photo/Laura Stoecker, 2007

“Snow days” might not be quite the cause for celebration in three suburban school districts. Students in Gurnee, Leyden Township and West Chicago have been selected for a pilot program in which “e-learning” would be used when snow or other emergencies force schools to close.

At three suburban school districts, students won’t be able to head for the sledding hill on a “snow day” as a new electronic learning program is tested for the next three years.

A day of nothing but sledding when schools declare “snow days” might not be an option this winter for students at three suburban school districts.

But there still might be time to build a snow fort.

Gurnee Elementary District 56, West Chicago-based Community High School District 94 and Leyden High School District 212 will test a new program allowing them to provide electronic instruction in lieu of snow days or other emergency days.

After changes to state law, the Illinois State Board of Education selected the districts for the three-year pilot, which begins Jan. 4.

E-learning days are a growing national trend, District 56 Superintendent John Hutton said