As we emerge from the shadows of the pandemic, it is tempting to believe that the challenges faced by schools are behind us. However, the reality is that education continues to grapple with the effects of what can be described as a Permacrisis—an extended period of instability and insecurity resulting from a series of catastrophic events. While the specific circumstances may vary, the themes remain relevant and pertinent for schools to consider in the present moment, especially as artificial intelligence continues to gain prominence.
I know there’s been a lot of talk of late about getting back to “normal” and the quest to regain some of our old rhythms in life. Everyone is exhausted. We just want to stop having to think about all of this and find some predictability.
Well, truth is, we may have to get used to the unpredictability of this moment and the future. In her great essay “Willing to Be Disturbed,” Margaret Wheatley writes:
"The world now is quite perplexing. We no longer live in those sweet, slow days when life felt predictable, when we actually knew what to do next. We live in a complex world, we often don’t know what’s going on, and we won’t be able to understand its complexity unless we spend more time in not knowing."
So maybe if we can take the stance of “not knowing” when it comes to thinking about what schools might look like when the disruption recedes, we can be open to what can happen that is best for students in the long run.
- Not a highly forgettable curriculum of cherished minutiae, but a deep learning experience that lasts a lifetime.
- Not a siloed lesson, but a discovery of global interconnectedness.
Not technology for its own sake, but as a tool for making meaning of the modern world. - Not a divided community, but a community willing to confront injustice and challenge misinformation.
Which begs the question, what do we want to go “back” to exactly?
I know that it’s comfortable. I know it’s hard to push back on what parents and policy makers and others expect the experience of school to be like. The status quo is always the path of least resistance.
But is it the path to powerful learning? Especially in this time of uncertainty and change?
It’s time to dream a bit, even if you might not be able to implement things right away. Let your imagination flow.
Despite the deep-seated narratives and experiences and expectations, we owe it to our students to ask with all seriousness whether or not the current normal is what we seek to return to after the pandemic abates. And we owe it to everyone to act to change it if the honest answer we arrive at is a “no.”
The next section draws insights from an ATLIS Virtual Town Hall conversation.
The Portal
The metaphor of a portal helps with understanding where schools are at this moment in time, as we sit in the transition space that lies between one world, our old, pre-COVID world, and a new world. Think about how we can reset and reinvent in this moment. We must keep in mind that to begin this process of reinventing, we must first take a closer look at where we are. “Not knowing” is okay, but we must also be in this moment and make sense of it before we focus on whatever awaits us down the road.
Learn more about what as we transition through the portal in this free ebook One Foot in the Future from the BIG Questions Institute.
So, naturally, we were asked to define learning. Here’s a sampling of what we came up with:
- Exploring things that challenge and interest you.
- Obtaining any type of information, experience, or idea that you didn't know before.
- Growing to be your best self.
- Making sense of the world and your place in it and figuring out the skills you need to fully understand how you fit in.
- The process of discovery leading to understanding.
- The ability to grasp a concept and transfer that understanding to something new.
- Adapting to the world around you.
- A journey of discovery that leads to action or change.
- Acquiring new skills or perhaps struggling to gain new skill.
- Thinking about new things in new ways, figuring things out.
- Gaining control of something, whether it be a fact, an idea, a skill, or something else.
- Using what you know to expand and augment your understanding of the world.
The year 2020 was a profound learning moment that required real-time problem solving at a time when there was a dissonance between our experience with learning in this moment and how we frame up learning in schools for students. Schools now have a chance to build the conditions in classrooms for learning to happen.
Many of these ideas can be found in the new ebook available from the BIG Questions Institute, 9 BIG Questions Schools Must Answer to Avoid Going “Back to Normal “ (*Especially Since “Normal” Wasn’t That Great to Begin With). One participant commented, “ My main takeaway from the BQ book was the idea that sometimes the best time to make major change is during a time of adversity.”
The Big Shifts
What is the main shift you’ve experienced at your school—good or bad—that you believe is here to stay?
- Flexibility—We have a unique open window that requires us to be flexible. How do we capitalize on it? How can we use this window of flexibility to look at the year ahead?
- Focus on the social emotional aspects of learning—We are asking, “Are students belonging in the spaces for learning that the school provides, especially if we look at this through a technology lens?
- Virtual meetings—These provide the opportunity to offer drop-in office hours for students and teachers, as well as some special programming that claims more attentive interaction and less distraction than an in-person school space would provide. Virtual gatherings are better attended and engender meaningful interactions.
- An awareness that infrastructure matters—The immediate need for a strong response means attention to getting stuff done. Even if people may be looking over your shoulder, they are providing support. Users are learning the functions of the various platforms.
- Expectations have changed across the board. Kids, teachers, and parents are all using technology with more confidence and success. They’ve learned they don’t have to have control over every little thing.
- Community was the word of the year. We have a better understanding of what community is and we have an eye on what we want it to be.
- Online/virtual learning is here to stay.
- Tech skills have leveled up for everyone. You really need to have those fundamental skills down.
Envisioning the Best Schools
Imagine the change in attitudes towards assignments and assessments, with students going at their own pace and working towards mastery with flexible due dates.
On the teacher side, perhaps there will be a more progressive pedagogical approach. One the student side, we can shift them out of their comfort levels and expose them to new and better opportunities for learning.
Technology Infrastructure for the Best in Schools
We need to manage expectations from the get go. Schools must be realistic about what their infrastructures can accomplish. Tech is not a magic bullet, and it also can’t happen overnight. The Internet and wifi are finite resources, even if we think of scheduling all the kids on computers all the time. We don't need to keep pouring money into things that aren’t solving every problem.
- We’ll need more subscriptions to larger, higher quality, community spaces.
- We’ll need to address devices and access.
- We’ll need to attend to security and privacy.
- I’m concerned about the mental health of faculty. How can we adapt to this new vision and feel a little more mentally healthy?
- We need boundaries around sending emails at night.
- We need to be able to work remotely without it being questioned.
- Use Sortd to create a to do list out of emails .
- Hybrid puts a strain on faculty, and it’s not good for learning either.
- Managing software via a spreadsheet helps leverage users to share what they are using and how they are using it throughout the school year. Analytics allow for better budgeting and planning, and the spreadsheet creates a tracking process. We can’t fund every app for every teacher’s dream use.
- Teachers must now fill out a form to request new software. A workable number of teachers needs to be interested for us to be able to subscribe -- there is some internal pressure for them to rally the interest in using the tool before we subscribe.
- It has been necessary to draw a line for the tools the tech department will pay for and what the division or department must pay for.
- Professional development has evolved into a weekly tech update.
Staffing Changes in Response to Changing Technology in Schools
- Hourly employees are being overtaxed, yet overtime is NOT allowed for Help Desk hourly workers -- this is a Federal requirement meant to protect them, but it is causing problems for school technology personnel. HR says that Help Desk must be hourly. In some cases, Help Desk duties have been distributed to everyone on the Technology Team.
- Resource: Department of Labor article
- Job descriptions have had to be rewritten.
- Bonuses need to be given to recognize the overtime hours being spent on Help Desk tickets.
- Boundaries need to be set for providing help. We are human, yet everybody needs tech all the time. In some cases, technology leaders are running interference for Help Desk issues and triaging to protect their teams.