With the lovey visitation of COVID-19 (coronavirus), our world has been turned upside down. Some of the United States have been affected by this since late-January. Other parts of the United States didn’t feel the repercussions until around March. Although many states have shut down, most states reopened around late May/early June.
Impact on the Educational Industry
One of the biggest impacted areas has been education. Around March, nationwide schools had shut down to prevent the spread of COVID. With so many unknowns, even to this day, it was the safest thing to do at the time. Districts nationwide readjusted, or extended, their Spring Break in order to figure out the logistics of how the rest of the year was going to be handled. Many districts took the situation week-by-week.
The Start to Virtual Learning Outside of College
One of the go-to options was digital/virtual learning. Even with that, many districts were ill prepared for the last minute changes that had taken place. Many families didn’t have Internet, technology, time, the ability, or much more to handle the virtual learning. Internet providers stepped up and provided discounted, or free, service for a short time to help students learn. Some districts provided technology to students, but quickly ran out. Parents/guardians were temporarily on hold with their life, but lacked the teaching credentials to properly help their child. When they returned to work, they weren’t around to ensure students completed their work.
When summer hit, many schools canceled summer school. However, with school starting again – now what!?
The Return to School 2020-2021
Summer Training
Teachers around the world, especially the United States, have spent their summer preparing for the return of school in a variety of ways. Much of their professional development was focused around virtual incorporation and/or whole-hearted online learning. Teachers discovered tools like Flipgrid to connect students from around the world, Nearpod for students to complete teacher led or student led lessons, Playposit to help students stay engaged in videos from YouTube, and many more online learning tools.
In addition to virtual teaching strategies, tools, and techniques, teachers also had professional development on their normal blood-borne pathogens, suicide awareness, mental health, FERPA, and more. This year was impacted even more so with the extra COVID-19 training campuses had to face (signs, symptoms, cleaning procedures, how to handle, how to social distance in a classroom, etc.).
Questions
In addition to all their normal trainings and virtual trainings, teachers also had to figure out a lot of their future for themselves. What masks work? Would they wear a mask all day (yes, we found out)? How do you social distance 25-35 kids in a classroom the size of a standard American kitchen? What happens if someone gets COVID-19 in the building? Where do they find sanitizer that doesn’t smell like tequila? Where do they find wipes for their desks, handles, etc.? How do they handle small group instruction? How do they lend out books for student reading? How do they lend out supplies for those who can’t afford it (CDC states no communal supplies, so that solved that concern)?
Teachers were left with a million questions and received a lot of: we’re not sure. With so much uncertainty, many teachers opted to leave the profession or retire, causing an already short-staffed profession in a much less staffed.
What’s the News?
School districts all over the world today are still unsure about the status of COVID-19. There is a lot of debate on whether students can or can’t transfer it to adults, each other, etc. With this, many school districts gave parents/guardians the option of online or virtual learning. Some districts delayed school, some districts still have their plans in the air, some districts are deciding to open. The one trend I keep seeing though is: virtual learning is here to stay regardless of COVID-19.
Many people are not happy about this trend. They have many of the same concerns from March-June (lack of technology, no or slow Internet, no time at home, and much more). However, I think a lot of society is missing the good in the situation.
The Good in Virtual Learning
With living in a digital world, there is no doubt that the upcoming generation needs to be more prepared technologically than every before. We aren’t talking about Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat integration, but true digital needs like Microsoft Office, G Suite, digital design, writing, and much more.
Many students in a classroom through high school have no idea how to format a paper properly, on their own, to write a college level entrance essay. That’s a problem! Students can take this opportunity for so many beneficial aspects of virtual learning.
Repetition
When teachers record lessons, either from their classroom or home, students will have the ability to rewatch the lesson several times, if needed. A student who may be 504, Dyslexic, Special Education, Emotionally Disturbed, or may have other (dis)abilities, they are able to rewatch it several times for clarification. Students may be able to pause and take notes instead of trying to focus in class and write at the same time. Even if the teacher provided notes online, they would be able to underline, highlight, or make additional notes during the virtual lesson.
Scheduling
If they’re unable to watch the lesson from 10:00 am – 11:00 am, when class is, they can find the recording later in the day and still be held responsible for content presented during the lesson. This is a great planning tool for entrepreneurs, college preparation, job scheduling, and more. Maybe the student is a night owl and tends to work better in the afternoon than morning. This will give those students an opportunity to focus better. This is also great if they have a parent whom works from home and needs to use the computer/Internet during the day for business. The student can spend the afternoon completing their work.
Responsibility, Team Work & Work Ethic
One of the biggest benefits is teaching students responsibility, team work, and work ethic. With online learning, even as early as elementary school, students develop a sense of responsibility. They are responsible for completing their work and turning it in. Just like an in-person classroom, they are responsible for completing and turning in their work. However, this puts more pressure on a student because they don’t have someone reminding them constantly throughout the day to complete and turn-in their work.
This is a great way for students to learn true team work as well. With programs like Microsoft Office and G Suite, students are able to collaborate with each other from a distance. Depending on how the teachers set up the assignment, students will be able to work virtually with one-another. With many careers requiring collaboration within their network, it is important to instill this whether it be in-person or virtually. So many tools are available for students to collaborate on documents or video!
It is so incredibly easy to cheat with virtual learning. However, there is a lot of risk as well because it becomes easier to copy and paste over a hand-written response. The virtual learning puts a bit of pressure on students to not only ensure they’re not plagiarizing, but also not sharing answers or Googling answers. It’s acceptable to use Google as a research tool, or in our case a way to look information up we may not know, but it’s not okay to use it as a copy and paste skill.
College Prep
America is one of the countries that may have all the greatness, but we severely lack in college preparation – whether it be academics, life skills, social interactions, or financial responsibility. We need to do better at preparing these students for college, and virtual learning is no exception.
Many colleges use virtual learning in some aspect of their students’ education. Even in-person lessons have a virtual component to them in order for students to submit work (papers, presentations, designs, analysis, financial literacy breakdowns, etc.). By introducing some of this minimal modalities (such as papers and presentations), students will be prepared not only on how to format them, but also write and submit them. Although the college may use a different eLearning platform, they will still be able to have an idea on where to look for submission and/or learn faster on the new platform.
Although that may seem minor in terms of a benefit for virtual learning, it is extremely impactful when discussing the preparation of student post-secondary learning. Our nation has become one in which having a Bachelors degree is no longer sufficient in terms of education. The competition for employment is astronomical! When given the tools ahead of time, students can better focus on classes more relevant to real-life experience and internships.
Angel Boucher 