I never wanted to write this article. Or maybe I really did intend to write it all along, having predicted this all would happen exactly a year ago. I predicted a techlash coming from educators who were tiring of the stresses accompanying the pandemic. In my article “The Worst of Times: Education in the Crosshairs” I long ago foresaw:
“Online fatigue. You’ve no doubt heard of Zoom fatigue, but educators and students everywhere are getting tired of all aspects of online instruction, whether synchronous or asynchronous. Expect a huge backlash when this is all over. You’ve heard of “revenge” travel? Expect revenge learning and revenge meetings.”
And in my article, “More Tales from the Pandemic: New Pain Points in Education, Part II”, I extended the warning:
“I continue to hear from K12 and higher ed instructors alike that the steadfast value of face-to-face connection, personal relationships, and active hands-on learning is something they NEVER want to sacrifice. Modern distance learning tools offer a timely safety-valve for our threatened educational institutions, but don’t expect the revolution.”
Fast forward to today. Educator fatigue is here and it’s real. Educators everywhere (except perhaps in our largest cities, whose unions fought against returning to classrooms) are overwhelmed and still do not feel safe. These are your customers, by the way. One school administrator I interviewed translates this overload in this 
way: “I’m seeing a general resistance to tech [in my building]. Teachers will certainly still do what they need to do, but if you are in charge of a new initiative—good luck.” No, the current mantra in schools, according to many I have interviewed, is “reduce-reduce-reduce-reduce”. Teachers and professors have no more capacity, so if you are trying to sell something to them, again, “good luck.”
One inner-city teacher-leader I spoke with suggested that, in her school, the general reaction now is that “teachers are pulling back’, closing the doors of their classrooms to the outside world, and are “bothered by the mention of any new technology or initiatives”.
Another educator I spoke with warned “There is NO chance for anything new or any change”. A building-level technology specialist, she complained that “teachers have been in survival mode for two years”—and that won’t change anytime soon, dear readers.
I interviewed another educator and uncovered the first hints of techlash emerging. In her district, the largest in Colorado’s, teachers have been instructed by administrators: “Don’t use technology-go back to your regular [personal, hands-on, like before-the-Rona] instruction”. Note what I am saying and seeing: the use of tech is being actively discouraged.
In still another large district, teachers are now being given guidelines to balance the technology more effectively, because some teachers have been using it “way too much or not in the right way”, suggests the same building-level technology leader.
Although this balancing may be hard to do—since many students now have personal devices they use for learning—teachers are clearly backpedaling, and technology is increasingly being shoved into the backseat of perceived instructional priorities. Is this really a surprise? My interviews with college students reveal that perhaps 90-95% prefer the old ways of doing business, the old ways of low-tech, face-to-face learning.
And now on to the Great Resignation. Lots of teachers are quitting. Both at the university and the K-12 levels. Good teachers. Some of the best. Each of the educators I interviewed above are seeing this “great resignation” in their place of employment, as are some of the teachers (and their work colleagues) in my graduate level classes. “We did this to them. It’s a shame,” cries one school administrator. The Rona did this to them. Poorly implemented technology did this to them. The rush, the press, the chaotic urgency of it all did this to them.
There are and will be many more stories to tell when this is all over. We are certainly living through one of the most unsettling times in recent history. But we are headed back to normal, whatever that means. – Len Scrogan
