I’ve noticed a profileration of offers in my Facebook news feed and email inboxes, regarding a scramble to professional educators to augment our fields of expertise, with new credentials, geared toward going online and remaining online — is this the new normal, and has the future arrived early?
Here’s an example of what’s on offer:
- May 30: Creating an Inclusive and Supportive Learning Environment. Learn how to engage underprepared students, embrace diversity in your classroom, provide useful feedback, and more.
- May 30: Inspiring Inquiry and Preparing Lifelong Learners. Hone your ability to motivate your students, provide clarity of expectations, develop self-directed learners, and more.
- June 20: Promoting Active Learning Online. Gain proven learning techniques to engage students, plan and facilitate discussions, and more — in an online learning environment.
- Please see: https://tinyurl.com/y9aq2g5s
Dottore Mark 
Thank you for sharing this interesting development. I am so interested to see where all of this takes us in the coming years. I feel that there are some students that are really going to thrive in a more digital learning environment and some that will really struggle. It is unfortunate that this first foray into distance learning was so underdeveloped for many, potentially leaving a bad taste for some, instructors and students alike. I think that many were predicting this type of shift for a long time, but I can’t imagine this taking hold in widespread ways without significant restructuring in education.
I think the pandemic shined a light on a much needed conversation around how K12 education plays a significant role in the lives of families outside of actual education. Schools and teachers navigate as babysitter, food pantry and technological connections for so many students across the country in addition to hopefully teaching them important information and skills. Until these other responsibilities are addressed, I am unsure how significant alterations to the K12 educational landscape could look.
Do you think that schools will move to a schedule that looks more like a college schedule with blended learning certain days and in-person courses on rotation after the threat of disease is gone?
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