I’ve been interested in the impact of technology on learning and on the school experience for over three decades. I started teaching when the only technology that was present in my classroom were projectors - overhead, slide and the occasional 16mm film projector. And yes, I had the purple hands that were the mark of a ditto machine gone rogue…
Another interest of mine is how the use of words shape the beliefs and actions of educators. Chris Lehmann got me started thinking about this many years ago. It’s really interesting how words and phrases become the vernacular of education, how they just become assumed into the practice of everyday education - and it’s likewise fascinating to see their impact on thinking and on practice.
The recent shift from the face-to-face experience of the brick and mortar school to a learning experience driven by online technologies has been a challenge for most educators and for students. There is no doubt about that. It’s been disruptive. And, as you would expect, this new experience had to have a label. We now recognize this technology-based learning experience as “remote learning.”
So now it’s everywhere. Social media embraced it, amplified it, and there appears to be no turning back. It’s here to stay.
It’s fairly safe to say that the shift to learning online has been less than perfect for many reasons. What I know from teaching online myself, and what I hear from teachers, is that it is a fairly sterile experience. Conducting a lesson or a webinar is challenging - even though you might be looking at faces, you’re really not looking at faces, are you? There is something different about it.
Anyone with classroom experience can tell you that you just know when your kids understand what you are teaching. Once you know them, you can tell. It’s a teacher thing, and hard to explain to non-educators, but you know. You know because you’ve learned to assess body language, the nuances of the reactions of kids, their level of engagement - all the very human things that make the classroom-teacher-student thing the thing. On top of that, once you get to know your kids, you know when they are having a good day or bad day, whether they aced their math test last period, or if they just had an argument with a friend. They become your kids.
Understanding those human responses and relationships, in many ways, constitute what is known as the art of teaching.
That level of connection is what is missing from remote learning.
So, the proper response would be to make “remote learning” more human within the capability of the current technology, with some new additions to pedagogy and a belief that it doesn’t have to be sterile and inhumane.
But here’s the problem.
Framing this experience as remote learning runs counter to the possibilities of technology and an experience that could be terrific. Nothing says engagement and human like "remote." Words matter.
Here’s the second problem. Every educator ever, when they hear those two words in the future, will think of the challenges and disruptions of having to move to teaching online in a couple of weeks. They will associate remote learning with stress, discomfort, and ineffectiveness. Tell me I’m wrong. Remote learning is a damaged concept already. It’s got big-time baggage.
Learning through a blended condition will most likely be the new reality. The challenge will be to design virtual learning environments and experiences that give the participants the greatest chance to experience something that is human. That wont be about a face in a Zoom meeting, or a thumbs up, or a chat room or any of the features of the technology. It won’t be about moving that great lesson that you’ve done 20 times successfully in your classroom to Zoom. But it will be about engaging kids in a learning experience that fulfills them, regardless of the venue. Let’s understand that the virtual experience is different and that what works in the physical classroom might not work online. Accordingly, lets develop pedagogical approaches that not only recognize that difference but welcome and embrace it.
Most importantly, let’s begin to see learning as just learning and something that can happen anywhere, an experience that is independent of platform and space but always dependent upon being human.