The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not always reflect the views of Reverb.
The institution of education reflects society and continually evolves to meet the incoming challenges of the day.
Historically we know that many changes that happen within our educational systems are direct reflections of current events. Today is no different.
There is no doubt it is challenging for technology to replace the interactions between a teaching practitioner and their students completely. However, residual influences from this period of distance learning will remain.
Some students have discovered distance learning to be a very workable solution.
Many teachers are entering into distance learning this fall with the lessons they learned from the crash course COVID-19 gave everybody in the spring, when schools first closed.
As always, teachers are innovators. They rise to challenges and look for ways to meet their students’ needs in new and different circumstances.
Based on what we learned in the spring, districts have now created more training for teachers. Additionally, many districts find there is more unity on distance learning platforms, which provides consistency.
Elements such as learning platforms will remain long after the pandemic on a much broader scale than before as viable options to replace paper waste and the cost of copying worksheets.
While remote education cannot meet every child’s needs, particularly those with learning disabilities or whose home situation is challenging, we will see distance learning as an offered alternative for some time to come.
If there’s one thing the spring has taught us, it’s that pedagogy and edtech are about to take great leaps forward, especially due to the efforts of those on the front lines: our teachers.
