Thursday, May 7, 2020

A Pandemic as a Catalyst for Technology Integration in Education

The past few months have been a whirlwind. Preparing and implementing an e-learning meant tremendous growth in the use of educational technology. I have to say: COVID-19 is the biggest catalysts for technology integration — ever! Most of us in instructional technology could never have imagined so many teachers learning and adopting new technologies so quickly! 

Years ago I wrote an ISTE article about the Interactive Whiteboard as Springboard for Technology Integration. There have been a variety of educational technology tools besides  SMARTBoards that have changed teaching and learning, such as the internet and the iPad. But we know it has always been a challenge to help teachers understand the benefits and CHOOSE to adopt new technologies. Of course, there are the go-getters—the innovators—who are willing to try just about any new technology tool. In any change/adoption cycle, there are those who follow the innovators—the early adopters, upon whose success an entire roll-out depends. But it’s those reluctant users, the hard to convince, with whom we often spend our time.

The pandemic and resulting quick transition to e-learning created an urgency that no amount of persuasion has ever done in the past. In a matter of a few days, every teacher needed to use our online learning management system, Schoology (Grades 4-12) and Seesaw (PreK-3), assign and collect homework electronically, record and post videos of instruction,  assess students (formative and summative), participate in and lead synchronous Google Meets, and much more. Administrators, paras, and other support staff needed to learn to use these tools as well.

Staff worked above and beyond the call of duty to help all teachers, students, and parents gain comfort using our technology tools. We spent countless hours--including some days late into the night and weekends--setting up systems, researching tools, documenting, troubleshooting, and training staff. The amount of professional development provided over the past couple of months far exceeds the amount of training that normally happened over a whole school year. We even held an EdCamp a week prior to e-learning. Teacher leaders clocked almost 1,400 hours of staff training—and counting.

We’ve all seen the “flatten-the-curve” graphs for COVID-19. Without social distancing we’d see exponential growth in COVID-19 cases. But think about the exponential growth in instructional technology adoption during this time. As I looked for a graph with an exponential growth curve combined with the diffusion of innovation model, I found the one pictured and am intrigued (source). Although it’s not an exponential curve, it’s perhaps a better graph to consider. The y-axis could represent the move to online teaching and learning, with rapid adoption of our e-learning technology tools. Perhaps a graph could also show the compressed time frame in which this has all occurred. If you know of other models, please share. 

For school districts like ours in which many have now mastered the basics of using technology tools for e-learning, what should be next? How do we move our teachers to higher levels on our Minnetonka Teaching & Learning Framework? We have been discussing this as a team, working on ways to enhance online instruction, make it more engaging for students, more effective and efficient for teachers, and more streamlined for parents helping from home. For example, now that teachers understand the basics of screen casting, what are the next skills and tools we want our teachers to learn? And now that many are using online formative assessment tools, what are the most effective questioning techniques? How can we make online discussion tools better and more meaningful for students?

Almost three years ago, I wrote: Accelerating Changes Needed in Education, a reflection on Thomas Friedman's claims that education was not keeping up with technology’s exponential, accelerating changes. He explained that we still had a chance to bridge the gap between the two growth curves of technology and human adaptability (shown in the graph). Mr. Friedman, over the last two months, I think we closed this gap considerably. 
I also realize that not all school districts are in the same place. The move to online learning has amplified the substantial disparities in educational equity communities face. In Minnesota, like other places around the world, we have a well-documented lack of broadband access.  So, some schools are “distance learning” without internet or device access. Hopefully the need to provide equitable access for all students will now get the attention and funding it needs.
It is, of course, still early to know what the next school year will be like. At this point, it seems that we will need to plan for four scenarios: 1) continued fully online school as we are now, 2) some sort of modified face-to-face school with social distancing and other new procedures being practiced, 3) a mix of #1 and #2, or 4) a return to February 2020 with our regular face to face schooling and past ways of doing things—but even that would be different.

Whenever we return, we will welcome back students and teachers who have new skills and experiences. So many teachers are experiencing for the first time what can be accomplished with technology. It seems that the traditional whole-class instruction format, without technology, will be a thing of the past. Why would we want to go back to pre-pandemic levels of instructional technology use? Now we can begin to focus on individualized and personalized instruction, self-directed and self-paced learning, frequent formative assessment, and things like flipped learning among other things. Return to normal? No, thanks. There is an exciting future ahead for students, teachers and learning.

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