Pandemic to the Future
By: Darryl Callens
The pandemic changed many things in education and business. Many were forced to come up with some sort of instructional platforms that could continue learning for students. The business world had to make adjustments as well. I’m a high school computer science teacher so I’d like to speak on my experience with education at the school level. In a quick moment, we went from being in a worldwide pandemic, to figuring out how the future looks for us in education.
For many, this moment was supposed to be already here. When I was younger I use to read those weekly readers and it spoke about flying cars in the 2000s. Well, I just knew that education would have a technology update by now. But prior to the pandemic, it was the same old educational system. There were some people in the know who were aware of technology implementations behind the scenes but to many teachers, they just wasn’t prepared for this moment in time.
After viewing the continuous learning rubric, I was able to compare it to where we are in my district. The rubric is broken down into (5) tabs. The levels are labeled from 1-5. (1) is labeled Beginning, (2) is labeled Developing, (3) is labeled for Aligning, (4) is labeled Improving, and (5) is Optimizing. As I compare each level to my school I think about the Beginning. I felt we spent a lot of time in the beginning level of reacting to the problem that the pandemic brought because honestly, I don’t think our technology director was prepared. So there were months with “little to no organizational alignment.”
Also, “improvement orientation is not evident.” Eventually though, after about two years, improvement was evident. I think a lot of that had to do with time and maybe the technology director was able to collaborate with other districts to see what worked and what we needed to be doing. Alabama had Access Distance Learning for years prior to the pandemic. But I don’t think that was a legitimate fix for everyone in the district.
A quick fix for our district could have been ClassLink. “Today’s education environment demands that schools are prepared for quick shifts between remote, in-person, and blended learning. This can be challenging, but schools don’t have to face this daunting task alone. ClassLink was built for this” (ClassLink, Remote learning, 2022).
This is the type of resource our technology director needed to know about for times like a pandemic when things shift around quickly and unexpected. ClassLink was the definition of continuity during the pandemic. With resource like ClassLink you can feel confident that instruction won’t be compromised.
Check out this video
to see how awesome ClassLink has been for educational stakeholders. The text even mentions the importance of having leaders like ClassLink to be visionaries. My district technology director, if they are still the same person now, should have always focused on the future of technology and learning. “A distance learning leader is a visionary capable of action who guides an organization’s future, its vision, mission, goals, and objectives” (Simonson, Smaldino, Zvacek, 2019, p.290).
Aside from being interested in the continuity of instruction I think another topic that interest me was the focus on student support. The SETDA Coalition for eLearning focuses state leaders about teaching and learning in the digital age. One of the coalition goals is “to ensure students can continue learning away from brick and mortar schools, it is essential that educators collaborate to provide best practices and a framework for instruction” (SETDA, Elearning, 2022).
Another way students were supported as well as staff was through one of the core elements that were mentioned in the continuous learning rubric. “Whole Child Supports” is what it’s called for this element. Basically there were changes made to alignment to make sure that “the district has mechanisms for understanding each student’s physical, mental, and emotional needs to provide tailored supports as needed.” View this link to see the rubric This is so important because many students experience different type of feelings during the pandemic.
My daughter went into a deep depression at one point during the pandemic. So it’s so cool seeing that the learning rubric implemented this sort of component to measure the students temperature and how they are feeling. What are their needs? And it even included a staff component which was thoughtful as well. The book states “As new distance education systems are being planned and implemented there is considerable concern that the time and effort required to move to distance delivery of instruction produced a valuable educational experience, thus, evaluation is regularly a part of plans to move from traditional face-to-face instruction to distance education” (Simonson, Smaldino, Zvacek, 2019, p.319). Without evaluations and feedback we won’t get the accurate feedback needed to make distance education meaningful and effective moving into the future.
The last topic that I found interesting was the future of distance learning. “One interpretation of this is that distance education is increasingly seen as a flexible, high quality option for students who, in the past, might have chosen a more traditional environment right out of high school… Finally, 76% of the program administrators reported an increase in demand for online courses at their institutions… The challenges and rewards for distance education administrators make this an exciting career track at all levels and in many environments” (Simonson, Smaldino, Zvacek, 2019, p.315).
Many of these resources and technology platforms focus on the future of instructional learning in distance education. Whether it’s ClassLink, AASA, CoSN, or SETDA all make supporting of students and educators the focus of their service. “Student access to robust digital tools is key to their success as 21st-century citizens. Yet many students have limited access to these tools both at school and at home.
CoSN is working to close the access gap for learning no matter where the students are” (CoSN, 2022). It’s evident that these organizations, resources, and web-tools make the future of education their focus. They each have their own missions and goals but all in the end aligns with student success and making sure that educators have the proper tools to transition into the future of technology and education.
References
Remote learning. ClassLink. (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://www.classlink.com/resources/remote-learning
Elearning - leadership, technology, Innovation, learning. SETDA. (2022, January 12). Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://www.setda.org/main-coalitions/elearning/
Simonson, M. R., Smaldino, S. E., & Zvacek, S. (2019). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of Distance Education. Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Digital equity. CoSN. (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://www.cosn.org/edtech-topics/digital-equity/
Darryl,
ReplyDeleteWe both found the section about whole child support to be noteworthy. Your daughter was not alone in her feelings. When I took my oldest son for his well check-up, his pediatrician told me that he had written more prescriptions for antidepressants in one year than he had in all of his years combined. He reiterated the fact that it was a true need and he never writes prescriptions without it being necessary. He also talked to me about the importance of children’s emotional health. Kantaris (2021) noted that teachers have a difficult task in supporting students’ emotional well-being along with the everyday demands of teaching. Benigni (2022) acknowledged that teachers had to get very creative during the pandemic to meet the needs of their students. Just thinking about my own pandemic experience, I was hosting Google Meets with crazy hair, guest teachers, and all kinds of theme days. I worked very hard to keep my students engaged and connected even though they were distance learning. Kantaris (2021) also saw the value in students connecting with peers and other social support networks. This helps me see the value in all of the Google Meets that I held for students to socialize with each other.
I also found the future of distance education interesting. As Simonson et al. (2019) points out, many homes and schools have advanced technology systems in place and there are new features that we don’t even know about that are on the way. They state, “distance education will play a central role in that future, as technology-delivered curricula are increasingly available on a global basis to anyone, anywhere, at any time” (Simonson et al., 2019, p. 285).
Thank you for sharing!
References
Benigni, M. (2022). Two years of lost learning: Not the case in all schools. https://www.cosn.org/two-years-of-lost-learning-not-the-case-in-all-schools/
Kantaris, X. (2021). Supporting students during an unsettling time. Psychology Teaching Review, 27(1), 5–8.
Simonson, M., Zvacek, S., & Smaldino, S. (2019). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (7th ed.). Information Age Publishing, Inc.
According to Benigni (2022), "the pandemic and our remote learning efforts also showed us the importance of providing all students with social-emotional support". I also enjoyed that the rubric emphasized the importance of the mental health of students and teachers. I think that it is imperative that everyone's mental health be of utmost importance.
ReplyDeleteI find it fascinating where our educational system is headed. Simonson et al (2019) state, "technologies for delivering coursework, facilitating communication, assessing learning progress, and managing the varied components of online instruction will continue to evolve" (p. 315). Many companies and educational platforms are changing daily to keep up with all of the latest and greatest. It will be interesting to see where education stretches and takes us digitally.
Thanks for sharing,
Erica
References:
Benigni, M. (2022). Two years of lost learning: Not the case in all schools. https://www.cosn.org/two-years-of-lost-learning-not-the-case-in-all-schools/
Simonson, M., Zvacek, S., & Smaldino, S. (2019). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (7th ed.). Information Age Publishing, Inc.