Miami-Dade County Public Schools students have officially returned to class to start the first day of My School Online for the 2020-2021 school year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a return to the schoolhouse model has not yet been possible. Therefore, students had to use new online platforms such as K-12, and in some cases, returned to old platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and student email.

Unfortunately for Cavaliers, logging in to the new platform K-12 presented several issues. Many students found themselves unable to access the student portal and K-12 platform. The students that were able to access the portal and platform found that connectivity took a long time and caused them to arrive late to some of their classes. Not only did students have issues with the K-12 program, but many teachers had similar issues with the platform as well.

Although originally the K-12 platform was the program that was supposed to be used for classes to connect, many teachers ended up using Zoom to meet with their students. They contacted their classes through Outlook, the student email, to send their students the Zoom links for their classes. Students were then successfully able to meet with their classmates and teachers. Microsoft Teams was also used to send out important information regarding the first day.

“I was able to log on successfully to the K-12 program but half of my class was not,” senior Daniela Parra del Riego said.

Shortly after users began to experience issues with the program, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools data center began to search for the problem and a possible solution. After having identified the dilemma as an issue with a third-party system Cisco, which provides the district connectivity, Carvalho stated, “We now have an army of Cisco engineers who have been able to penetrate our server to fix the problem.” In the event of a reoccurring issue on Sep. 1, a link was sent through Outlook for students to be able to access the K-12 platform.

The issues with the platform did cause some concern over whether students would be able to access their classes. Teachers and students had to adapt and switch to using Zoom rather than K-12 which was what they were originally supposed to use. Some people even seemed to believe that the error was a result of poor preparation and became upset with the way the first day was planned for. Others were convinced that the new platform simply has its flaws and that everyone should remain patient when learning to navigate the new program.

“On the first day of school, I was not able to log on to the K-12 platform successfully through the student portal. However, on the second day of school, I was able to log on successfully through clever.com. Overall, the first day of school did not go as planned and I felt as if Miami-Dade was unprepared for the first day of school,” junior Milla Faraldo said.

My School Online is new to everyone and therefore is expected to have some issues in its first few days of use. Students, teachers, and parents are still trying to overcome any of these obstacles and make online school run as smoothly as in-person learning. The new platforms have their flaws and people are working diligently to fix the errors.

Although the first day of the 2020-2021 school year was certainly a unique one, the Gables community is trying their best to make the best of an already difficult situation. Cavaliers must keep in mind that this is only temporary and hope that sometime in the near future we may be able to return to a schoolhouse model.