In my previous article, “More Tales from the Pandemic (Pain Points in Education, Part I)“, I highlighted five “pain points” that educational institutions are currently enduring due to the Pandemic. These five were, of course, all hurdles that were quite predictable. Today’s article, however, focuses on some newer and less foreseeable pain points that schools and universities are now rassling (or wrestling with). Some of these new annoyances may well surprise you.
NEW ANNOYANCES
Here—you go solve this! Much of the responsibility for teaching has been pushed back (by administrators) into the classroom. Back into the hands of teachers/professors. And the going hasn’t been easy, especially for the untrained or the unwilling.
Student engagement. Clearly, the number one complaint I hear from educators (K12, higher ed and industry) worldwide is “How can I improve student engagement in otherwise dreary online offerings?” As an interesting side note, many administrators and thought leaders are encouraging teachers/professors to reduce their content (often, by as much as 50%) in order to make online learning more palatable. Oh my.
Virtual learning for young children. Before the pandemic, computer education for the littles, and especially online education for the littles, was broadly viewed as entirely undesirable. Today, one of the most in demand topics is how is how to deliver a meaningful learning experience to preschool through second grade children, who learn best in face-to-face and tactile environments. Schools are really struggling with this, world-wide.
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.
Collecting data about online learning. Current online learning platforms are ill-suited for collecting data about meaningful online learning. The learning performance analytics on our university’s learning management system (LMS), for example, are largely worthless. I anticipate leaders will soon start looking for better analytics tools.
Assessment. How to better assess learning in online context has evolved into a huge struggle recently, especially for younger children. Educators everywhere are talking about how to do this better.
Class load. Do the math. The typical high school teacher in the U.S. may have 150 total students enrolled in her/his classes. In the physical classroom, that’s certainly a lot, but it has proven manageable for decades. Now push all those students online. It’s nothing less than a digital nightmare.
Extreme stress. “Everybody is stressed” is the new staff mantra, according to many educators. That’s why so many vendors feel like gatecrashers when approaching educational customers. Educators everywhere are in search of better tools for promoting student and teacher well-being.
CTE class dysfunctions. CTE stands for Career-Technical Education, the newest nomenclature for something you might remember as vocational education. The effects of COVID on work-integrated learning, work/industry placements, work-experience programs, apprenticeships, hands-on vocational training, field experiences, internships, and the like has been more than challenging, to say the least. CTE educators have been pulling out their hair trying to make CTE work experiences relevant and do-able in the Covidian era.
Organizational insularity. Innovation is often difficult to realize in schools. Schools tend to operate in closed systems that inhibit creative ideas, fresh outside belief systems, and the ready infusion of system outsiders. What we often end up with are small pockets of innovation; “spreading the wealth” or scaling innovation is typically an uphill battle. Over the last two covid-driven semesters, I’ve noticed a strange brew of ‘extremes’ in education: considerable groupthink between and among institutions (driven by fear, unions, and/or science) and system insularity (driven by fear, uniqueness, inexperience, and parent expectations) for other institutions.
Again, I leave the reader to contemplate the possible opportunities presented by the new educational challenges in this peculiar Covidian era. Re-read this list of impediments and ask yourself these questions: “Do I provide a product/service that can relieve the obvious pain being felt by educators in this instance?” “Does our messaging convey a sense of empathy with these concerns?” If so, don’t feel like an uninvited wedding crasher—contact your local educator—and offer a helping hand upwards. —Len Scrogan
