Today I keynoted the CUEBC (Computer Educators of British Columbia) Conference with my mouthful of a title, “Isn’t This Kind of What We Wanted – The Good, Not So Good and Hopefully Awesome of Technology in Schools in the Time of COVID.”
At the bottom of the post is the video of the talk. Rather than restating the entire talk, let me highlight some of the big ideas that I wanted to share.
In the spring we were scrambling; it was emergency learning. It was very revealing which schools and districts had invested in technology and had coherence in their work built over the last decade. We learned who was faking it in the new world and who was truly invested. Those who were thoughtfully invested and had strong infrastructure, common platforms and a baseline of use across schools and the district outpaced the others.
What is exciting about the fall is that everyone has upped their game. And I don’t think it really matters if you are a Microsoft, Google or Teams District – what matters is that you have selected a robust set of tools and are using them well. Also in the spring we saw a lot of just trying to get digital content out to students, now we are seeing far better use of technology in ways that does not just replicate traditional school experiences, but creates experiences that would actually not be possible without the technology. In the spring we were being driven by technology and now we are being driven by learning and using technology.
It does feel like we have a tremendous opportunity. Students, staff and parents want to use this time as an opportunity to create new structures for learning – new ways to engage students in relevant and connected learning opportunities. As I wrote in my last post, we want to do this without losing the collective good of education – we cannot just turn schools into credit factories. And we need to be conscious of equity. As exciting as these times are, we need everyone to benefit. It was interesting in the spring in British Columbia, we found ways to get devices into the hands of almost all students who needed them, and get wi-fi into homes that didn’t have it. We need to hold this to be a fundamental obligation that all students have access to the tools so that all students benefit from the power of digital learning. And this is not an impossible goal – we need to keep focused on this. As I argue in my presentation, if we can ensure all houses have garbage pick-up we surely can ensure all houses have wi-fi access.
Borrowing ideas from the OECD and others, I think the next 12-24 months create numerous opportunities including:
- harnessing innovation
- re-imagining accountability
- remembering the power of the physical world
- supporting the most vulnerable
- reinforcing capacity
- building system self reliance
- preparing digital resources
More than ever, leaders need to celebrate risk-taking. There are fewer rules in the pandemic, and we don’t need just one model, we need multiple models as we move forward.
I think this is a once in a career opportunity for us in education. Of course we wouldn’t have planned for the opportunity to come in a pandemic that can be absolutely exhausting – but here we are – and we can’t let this chance go to waste.
If you have some time, please take a look at the video and join the conversation. Or view the slides HERE. Discussion and debate is good – it will move us forward.
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