Never going back: our educational culture will be forever changed for the better

Today’s “rip off the bandaid” movement into home-based e-learning will forever alter classroom education for the better.

A bold statement, I know. And we’re certainly not there yet. For many, we’re still in that clunky, awkward—and often frustrating, hair-pulling—phase of figuring things out. But together (and indeed, separately) we’re doing so much important, innovative, inspirational work that will eternally change the culture of education. We're learning how to enrich face-to-face learning with virtual enhancements—using tools in the toolbelt we haven't had to access before. That’s at least one silver lining amid the heartbreak and uncertainty of today’s uncharted waters.

Teachers have been forced to jump in the deep end to determine how best to digitally translate their classroom lessons. In many cases, they’ve had to completely alter their instructional, organizational and communicative approaches to appeal to their virtual students. 

Students have needed to navigate a multitude of courses and disparate resources. They’ve had to negotiate different teachers’ online approaches, and strategize how best to absorb and process information in this brave new world.

And parents have been thrust into the interesting—and often challenging and stressful—position of acting as second-teacher, facilitator, translator, scheduler, enforcer, counselor and cheerleader. And many of us are multitasking while also working our own jobs and caring for younger children. (Indeed, as I write this article, my older kids are doing their coursework in between parental check-ins, and my toddler is climbing on me, demanding more of my divided attention.)

Certainly, many educators aren’t new to online instruction. But for most, e-learning has traditionally served as a supplemental strategy—not the full strategy. So even those with existing online teaching experience have been jolted into innovating new approaches. And for those with little to no e-learning experience—it truly is a whole new ballgame right now.

Fortunately, we’re all in this together, so educators and companies have been quite generous with their knowledge and resources.

You can’t throw a virtual stone without hitting a roundup of free e-learning resources. Here’s another one! And another… and another… 

We at LinkedIn Learning are trying our best to share the knowledge, too. We’ve unlocked nearly 40 full-length courses on topics like online instruction strategies, teaching and collaboration tools, remote productivity and much more.

But seriously—three weeks into this new journey, I’m already noticing real, meaningful, important changes. The kids are slowly settling into successful routines. More and more, I’m overhearing enthusiastic Zoom-based morning check-in meetings… interactive show-and-tell sessions and oral book reports. I’m helping my daughter create shared Google Docs between her and her classmates to collaborate on course research. I’m guiding my son through gamified math lessons and virtual science experiments. 

But it’s the stuff between the sessions that I find really encouraging. It’s my kids’ smiles as they solve problems in a different way than they’re used to. It’s the heartfelt conversations between the kids and their teachers as they discuss what they were able to independently accomplish. It’s their growing confidence and conviction as they use brand new tools. 

And I truly believe we’re never going back. These enhancements (or at least the confidence to incorporate them) are here to stay. And so ripping off the band-aid—even though it’s for a scary and uninvited reason—will help our educational system be better, stronger and more resilient going forward.

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EDIT: Upon reflection, I wanted to say that this article was indeed written from a position of privilege. My kids, and the students in my community, largely have the resources to make this work. There are, however, millions of students who lack the technical means (computers, wifi access, among others) that may encourage a more successful virtual learning experience. These barriers cannot be ignored, and I invite others with insight into those hurdles to write about how teachers, students and parents are dealing with current events.

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