24 Days of Blogging, Day 4: “This little piggy went … Wee, wee, wee, all the way home!”

For someone who has dithered (with various degrees of success) in identifying trends and directions of contemporary education, 2020 has been a blessing and a nightmare. All the times I have spoken about true disruptive change have found their test in greatest disruption of my lifetime, and schools have by necessity embraced (well, embraced might be a strong term, perhaps held hands with) tools of digital distribution and new models of student instruction and attendance. On the other hand, the combination of poor preparation, inadequate resources, and surrounding conditions both uncertain and terrifying have hog-tied the path of innovation. the great digital experiment has taken place (and continues to take place) in a mobile lab strapped to the back of a javelina in a stampede, in the rain, with a leaky roof.

Like every other aspect of this pandemic, various academics will be figuring this out for decades to come. However, I received a call this morning for a school that wants me to conduct a workshop examining what was learned and where we go from here on January 4, 2021! While I admire this focus on examination of data and using past experiences to inform future planning, I don’t think the javelinas have yet finished trampling the prairie. That being said, I immediately started to thinking about what the new norm….no, I can’t bring myself to say it, what the future might be and how this year will serve as a gateway to whatever is coming next. How will classroom instruction be changed forever by this experience?

Well, I suspect at least initially, it won’t. There is a collective perception in the minds of teachers, parents, and students that online instruction and blended learning models are a failure. There won’t be much remembrance of the fact that teachers were poorly prepared (partially because there has been a resistance to these models for some time) or that students were in high stress conditions or even that parent frustration was in part caused by having to watch kids while they were learning to work remotely. No, this was a failure and the best thing will be for kids to be back in “traditional” school, and I suspect the more traditional the better. When I talk to schools about marketing for 20-21, I’ve been telling them that this is not the year to promote new programs, because all most parents want to hear is that education is back to what they remember. Pandemic has put its stink on distance learning, and it won’t wear off overnight.

However, as much as we might cling to the comfortable, it is also a inveterate law of human nature that we don’t put innovation back in a box. Even though many of the methods and distribution systems were clunky, as distribution systems they did work. I’ve been interested in the number of schools that have installed cameras in classrooms to facilitate distance learning for some or all of the students. It’s hard for me to imagine that these cameras are going to go fallow after “regular” school resumes. Like a Chekhovian gun on the wall, if you put a camera in a classroom at the beginning of the semester, it will be used by Christmas break.

There are several modest ideas for integration of this new ability into traditional school. An obvious use might be to allow students with long term (or even short term) illnesses to continue to participate in class from home. Some of this implementation was already taking place in pockets using jobbed together systems. How much easier it will be when a teacher only has to flip a switch. The camera could also be used by administrators and mentors to observe classes without the disruption of being in the classroom. I realize that there are some challenging aspects to this, and I’m not suggesting spying, but there are positive opportunities here. Or, much to students’ disappointment, maybe this means the end of traditional snow days. teachers can teach and students can learn from home on days when the roads are covered with snow (a month ago I learned about a public school in Gallup that was 100% distance learning and yet they still has a snow day! Don’t know what to make of that). Theses are small incremental changes that are now possible to make education better for individual students or all the students.

I believe over time some schools will embrace more radical approaches to this. The introduction of friction free distance learning, especially as it improves over time, presents possibilities for enrollment of different tracks of students. Though the majority of students will attend traditional day school, some will break from this pattern from necessity or desire. A school might enroll students who come to campus full time, part time, or no time. Such a system will also flex the bounds of distance, and students from other parts of the city, state, country, or world can enroll in a high quality school. This is a simplistic explanation, and I’ve yet to explore many of the challenges and opportunities. There a million questions of effectiveness and equity. However, once technology is available, it is highly unlikely that creative people (to put the best face on it, greedy people will also be at the front of the line) won’t find a way to use it. Parents in turn , particularly parents with means, will in time refuse to settle for the limited location when infinity is available online.

This is one part of a speculation on one aspect of what has transpired during the past year. Similar attention will be given to all parts of this great experiment in the midst of a Javelina stampede.

Be safe, be strong.