Online Learning – Cutting Edge or Temporary Fix?

Without digital tools, the impact of Covid-19 on the formal education of our children would have been devastating.  Within days, schools across the world moved from learning on campus to remote classrooms set up around the home.  Students of all ages connected with their teachers and continued their studies, or did they?

Technology allowed the world to continue offering an educational product and students did their very best to adapt to the change.  However, the results are mixed, and the early returns point toward a significant gap in learning.  Many students followed the program. Some hopped on and turned their cameras off, while others simply didn’t show up. 

Certainly, digital tools offer the possibility to deliver instruction in a variety of new ways and our journey the past few months will change the face of education.  Large campuses with high overhead are wildly expensive and at some point, the cost of our current model will no longer be feasible.  Technology will force us to change and now that large groups are becoming comfortable with the tools – namely faculty and administration – change is inevitable. 

The clear takeaway from the world-wide lockdown is that human beings are relational and not just relational but physical.  Even though we saw each other on the screen and could communicate, for most it wasn’t enough – not even close.  We realized how addicted we are to simple things like body language, eye contact, physical touch, in person silence, and more.  Zoom calls and Google Meet Ups, while life-savers during this time, fell woefully short.

In no other arena was this clearer than in education, especially in elementary school.  Kids need in-person relationship.  The baseline is simple accountability.  If you place a group of 3rd-graders in a live classroom there will be a few who won’t follow the program.  If you place the same group of 3rd-graders in a digital classroom the numbers of students who check out, grow.  This has been seen across the board with online classes.  Most students with less accountability and oversite struggle. 

More than accountability, learning with your peers creates relationship and relationship is a significant driver to the learning process.  The atmosphere or esprit-de-corps of any setting is a tremendous part of how we function.  Whether it be in a restaurant, an athletic event, or evening hanging out at the park we need others.  Imagine playing the Superbowl without fans in the stadium or graduating seniors via car parades or Zoom calls – didn’t we just do that?  Yes, and it stunk!  

The common report from parents is that kids really struggled even to the point of crying themselves to sleep and riding a steeper emotional rollercoaster.  They missed their teachers, longed to see their friends, and craved the setting of the field, stage, classroom, and cafeteria.  It wasn’t great.  It was really hard on kids.

Human beings are relational and need to be able to see, bump into each other and look across the room or the yard and observe.  It is how we are built.  Can digital tools move us forward!  Absolutely and they must.  However, what we have learned from Covid-19 is that in-person everything is the core of who we are.   So, let’s reflect on how we might best integrate these valuable tools in such a way that will make education, and all of life for that matter, even stronger.  Good will come out of our current struggle and the way forward will continue to be filled with ingenuity and creativity.  It is part of our DNA. 

Author: The Perfect Teen Staff