The education system is generally not known for agile and dynamic changes in structure. During the 2021 premiere episode of CBC's "Dragon's Den", Manjit Minhas noted that "...they have budgets, they have long timelines... they are very rigid to try something new." Yet COVID forced a dynamic change across all sectors of the economy, and school was no exception.
Prior to COVID, most schools in Canada followed an educational format that included:
Lecture-style classes were grouped by age and first developed for the industrial revolution.
Teachers produce lessons for a group of 20-30 students who consume lesson content
Students apply and are assessed for what they learned in standard projects or tests.
Any differentiation is the responsibility of the teacher
Behaviourism is typically employed to manage a class
The growth of online and mobile technology had inevitably influenced education prior to COVID; in the preceding decade, hosting curricular content online went from being a novel concept to a general expectation just short of a necessity. Numerous Learning Management Systems (LMS) began proliferating to address this growing need, though most retained the teacher-as-producer structure of a typical classroom. Some of those we had the most experience with prior to COVID are explored below!
Google Classroom launched in 2014 and its mobile apps followed in 2015 for iOS and Android. It is generally seen as the most user-friendly for students and staff, though the software is proprietary and concerns over data usage and privacy due to its US-based servers linger. That said, the affordability of Chromebooks has and continues to make classrooms the most prevalent LMS in K-12 education.
Initially launched as "Instructure" by the company of the same name in 2008, this LMS first became mobile in 2011 on IOS and 2013 on Android. Unlike Classroom, the core platform is open-source under an AGPL licence, which affords schools opportunities to host student data locally.
Moodle was first released in 2002 to help educators create course websites, and it has always been under a GNU public licence. Moodle pioneered most standard LMS features today (Calendar, Grade book, etc.), however, it is generally seen as the least user friendly.
When the COVID crisis emerged, it created a massive disruption in the education sector. Shifting to an emergency remote learning context created challenges that heavily impacted students learning. According to Jane Mann, the Director of Education Reform at Cambridge University, these challenges include the following elements:
"Students face disruption to their learning environment, their contact with classmates and teachers becomes highly fragmentary (if it is happening at all) and their access to learning materials is at best transformed and at worst removed.
They face breakages in their progression through curricula, with gaps created that can disrupt learning and achievement for the rest of their educational careers.
Assessments are inaccessible or delegitimised, undermining long-term security and expectations about outcomes.
Perhaps most troublingly, students and teachers face uncertainty and stress that can destabilise the emotional consistency and safety that schooling can offer."
Before moving on to the next section, let us know how YOU think traditional education systems need to change to become more responsive in the face of a crisis like COVID. Add your answer to the Padlet board below by clicking the "+" in the bottom right-hand corner.