Looking Forward
The future of Education
OUR FINAL THOUGHTS
LMS, IEPs & equality
The pandemic has highlighted the enormous potential for innovating our education systems. We must design and maintain an education system that ensures inequality is addressed so that we can provide all students with the skills and tools to build a better future for themselves and their communities.
As a mother with a child who has multiple learning disabilities, online learning was a struggle as the learning design and support structures were not in place to support his IEP. In reimaging the future of online education, consideration in how to support students who struggle with independent learning and confidence must be contemplated.
Within a reimagined LMS, building in the ability to change font type and font size, having the ability to highlight sections of text, and allowing for text to speech or speech to text is needed to allow those with learning disabilities to fully engage. As we saw with the pandemic, technology shifted from being a vehicle for education delivery to a mechanism for collaboration and social connectedness. Designing an LMS that includes time management tools, collaboration and communication functions for students would provide a single platform to support organization, education, collaboration, and relationship building. Imagine the positive outcomes for students that could bring!
- Nicole
Student-centered, hybrid learning & Reallocating Resources
This project has shed light on the need to reimagine education systems that are agile to disruptions caused by a crisis like the COVID pandemic. Themes in the literature that emerged when considering a reimagined education system were models that transition from teacher-centered to student-centered. I can see how, in a time of crisis and possible disruption, student-centered models would support students in being more independent learners. Additionally, many believe that hybrid learning is the way of the future. This would take advantage of the best of in-person learning and the best of digital and mobile learning; the best of both worlds. I can agree with that too. However, considering many of the changes that need to be made, the one thing that remains unclear to me is resources. I see a place for mobile technologies in a reimagined education system but technology and the support it requires costs money. So I believe that perhaps a reallocation of resources needs to be made, at governmental levels and at institutional levels. We can idealize a perfect system but we must face the realities and challenges that come with it to ensure a fair and quality education for everyone.
- Jasmine
educate for our planet
Raising awareness to protect our planet through the right actions means understanding how to think about sustainable habits in daily life. School plays a vital role from kindergarten to post-doc. This video shows us how technology and school can explore and explain our role. Seen from space, we are just one blue beautiful mass, a star in the galaxy, with no borders. This reminds us to think about what we share and what our world is truly about.
-Joy
Rethinking Teaching Strategies, Digital Learning, & Diverse learning Styles
Educators need to think outside of the box when it comes to teaching. The pandemic forced teachers to switch their teaching from sustainability to responsiveness. When rethinking teaching strategies, educators must ensure that their instructional approach is adaptable to any learning environment. As a crisis should not significantly impact students' learning. Digital Learning increased with the pandemic because educators had to find ways to engage with their students. They implemented podcasts, video recordings, and various apps as part of their curriculum design. With remote learning, they needed to ensure it was similar to the classroom learning experience. The use of technology facilitated an online learning community whereby students interacted with their peers and teachers. It is challenging to meet the learning needs of students, especially when teaching online. Educators need to be innovative to address diverse learning styles among students. As some may be visual, audio, or text, teachers found this challenging in a remote setting. They sought the assistance of instructional designers or the self-taught approach to meet the needs of their students. In many cases learning how to use various applications or adapting their teaching style helped.
-Anna
Collaboration & creating a digital community
One of the most essential human needs is having a sense of community--something that was taken for granted before the pandemic and something that was severely missed during, specifically in the classroom. Studies have shown that learning together increases motivation and promotes better results. Delivery of educational material has been proven to be not only possible but extremely convenient during the switch to remote learning, but educators creating spaces for collaboration and striving for an atmosphere that promotes learning together could make a significant difference in the quality of distance learning brought on my crisis. Mobile apps have offered an enormous amount of supplementary support of community during this time--whether through social media, mental health assistance apps, or even co-op gaming to pass the time--and I look forward to seeing how much more mobile technology will assist in creating a connected, digital community.
-Tasneem
Flipping the Classroom and leveraging AI
Most students could have accessed their entire curriculum from a variety of freely available open-source resources well before the pandemic, however, educators and students across the world now have the experience of managing their learning online, and like Plato's allegory of the cave, now that we know we can learn this way, we can't simply return to "business as usual" teaching. As such, educators can afford to flip the classroom and move away from teacher-centric learning models by making curricular resources available to their students outside the classroom. Furthermore, assessment can also be assisted by artificial intelligence in suitable contexts (spelling, grammar, arithmetic, etc.) to both free up more time for educators and reduce feedback time for students. These practices will make more time for educators and students to engage in the most meaningful part of their education: their collaborative relationship.
-Brendan
