NewsEducation

Actions

Zoom outage makes first day of virtual learning difficult for Kern County school districts

Posted at 6:28 PM, Aug 24, 2020
and last updated 2020-08-24 21:28:10-04

BAKERSFIELD, Cali — August 24th marked the first day of school for many across the country, and while most were already expecting some adjustments from in-person learning to distance learning, it was technical issues with the video conferencing application, Zoom that may have caused the most headaches for schools districts.

“At 7 something we were getting emails that zoom was down, canvas was down,” Doug Burdick, Assistant Dean of Students for Foothill High School.

The first day of school came with some technical challenges for some Kern County school districts.

The Kern High School District say that their technical glitches were due in part to Zoom, a video conferencing system, being down nationwide.

Several schools in Kern County use canvas which is integrated with the zoom system.

"Canvas was really slow to start up, it was really difficult, i mean some kids couldn’t even log on,” Burdick said.

With a few adjustments and patience, schools were able to continue with their first day of virtual learning when the zoom system was back up and running at 10 o’clock this morning.

Another district who experienced zoom issues was the Bakersfield City School District , according to Jazmine Frias, Principal of Williams Elementary.

“There was some issues with zoom on the first day of school today so that was kind of interesting but, i saw lots of smiles and lots of laughs,” Frias said.

Meanwhile the Panama Buena Vista School District had already warned students and parents about potential slow internet during the first week of school.

The school district told 23ABC they've provided live tech support to help fix any issues students may have while learning online.

Despite the technology problems, school officials want to emphasize that while this time is difficult, they are still staying positive.

“There are some challenges along the way, but there are also some great discoveries to be made in the end,” Frias said.