Are those in charge looking too far ahead?
I love alliteration as much as I love considering what is coming next, but something about the current state of educational futurism has me feeling uneasy. Currently in New York State there is a committee assembled to “Reimagine Education” called the Reimagine Education Advisory Council (aptly named for sure). Now, I am not criticizing the Governor nor the members of the council (although I do have concerns that of the 19 members only two are teachers and there are no school leaders), but rather am concerned with the premise going into the formation of this council, primarily that distance learning is working.
When you start from a place of success your motivation is to build upon that success, but as previously explored, distance learning is not a resounding success for all students. Let’s ignore that opinion for a moment and focus on the simple fact that not all students have the access to the technology needed to abandon the classic approach to education; physical schools. The fact remains that significant portions of this country do not have access to the internet. It is such a large issue that it has been taken up by our federal government (read about the battle here). Whether distance learning is a success or not doesn’t matter if all students cannot access it.
That is the crux of the problem; the temporary solution has been a fun and exciting experiment. It has shown us how vital teachers are, and it has shown us a taste of what the current state of technology can do, but this has not been a “the future is now” moment. We should treat this moment as a chance to expand the tools available to teachers. Blended learning can, and should, now be a reality. Students have spent months learning on their computers, lets capitalize on that when we return to the classroom. Change the dynamic of instruction, allow self-exploration, ensure homework is not practice, design lessons to go beyond the designated instructional time; use the technology of this experience, but leave no child behind, and we simply aren’t there yet.
Nobody knows what the future of education looks like. When I consider it, I imagine increased use of Augmented Reality to deliver instruction. I can even see classrooms fully contained in Virtual Reality environments where students and teachers can mimic the classic classroom experience without ever leaving their own home. I cannot imagine a future (or at least I don’t want to) where the interaction is with a flat screen and not other human beings. I don’t see anything wrong with a classroom of curious children and teacher eager to feed that curiosity, in fact I prefer it. That doesn’t mean I am not ready for what is coming next, I just urge those who are leading the way, to ensure that all students can come along with them.