The Future of Education

The COVID-19 Pandemic will have long-lasting impacts on our society. One of the sectors where normalcy has been the most disrupted and which will likely undergo the most change is education. Millions of students have had to move from in-person classrooms to remote learning almost overnight. While not all of the long-term effects of this pandemic will be positive, I believe that the evolution education will undergo will be long overdue.

Our education system has been deteriorating for decades. A system predicated on conformity has not been able to keep pace with the tools and methods necessary to best equip learners to flourish in modern society. I believe that the coronavirus’ impact will be less of a seismic shift for education and more of a wake-up call to the massive impacts that technology has been making on the learning environment. The three technology trends that I think will leave the largest impressions on education are the rise of remote teaching, more personalized lessons, and life-long learning.

Remote Teaching

Whether we wanted it or not, remote teaching is here and my guess is that it will be here to stay. As school districts and universities have tried to flip the switch on remote learning, what has become clear is that teaching remotely requires a different skill set and tool kit than teaching in person. This may sound obvious, but as I have spoken with those who are experiencing this first hand, it is striking how different the experience can be depending on whether or not your teacher was prepared. Teachers who were prepared had developed asynchronous lectures, experiential modules, and environments where students could collaborate. Teachers who weren’t, propped up an iPhone on some textbooks in the back of the room and continued trying to teach as if nothing had changed. The reality is that there isn’t an inherently superior type of learning. Both remote and in-person education have their shares of pros and cons. I expect that in the future we will see the rise of more blended styles of learning that combine the collaboration and communication of in-person learning with the convenience and asynchronicity of remote education.

Personalized Lessons

Modern education’s most fundamental flaw is the forced structure of the one-to-many classroom. Teachers are put in the impossible situation of trying to keep 30+ different students with different needs and learning paces in lock-step as they navigate government-imposed standardized curriculums. Inevitably some portion of the class is left behind. Either lessons move too fast and struggling students are left in the dust or they move at a snail’s pace with high achievers becoming bored (and if they are anything like I was growing up, resorting to distracting their fellow students). Technology now allows us to meet students where they are and not where a one-size-fits-none curriculum tells us they should be. Students can learn at their own pace, investing more time to understand concepts they struggle with and speeding through those that are intuitive to them. This technology is already in use and its adoption will only increase as a result of forced experiences with remote learning. Altitude Learning develops software that empowers existing schools to build a more personalized learner-centric curriculum. Lambda School has gate assessments that their students must pass in order to move forward with their education. Once a student has mastered a certain section or skill, they become student teachers to help mentor newer students, developing even further mastery.

Life-Long Learning

As the trend of increasing automation continues to accelerate, workers will be required to continuously upskill throughout their careers. Technologies supporting life-long learning will make it easy and enjoyable for people to take courses in subjects that interest them. I have been keeping myself busy through quarantine by going through Bram Kanstein’s No Code MVP course. I am sure it won’t be the last course like this that I will take. I believe we will continue to see more and more courses built off of an individual’s personal expertise. These are a great way to learn no matter what age you are and a nice cherry on top is that they allow people to monetize their expertise in a powerful way (they are a great example of micropreneurship). With the proliferation of technologies like no-code software, it has never been easier to build and consume educational content over the course of your life.

The cat is out of the bag. Education has been too broken for too long and I believe that the coronavirus pandemic is exactly the spark the sector needs to start reinventing itself. What impact do you think COVID-19 will have on education? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments below!

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The Mind-Killer

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.

I am currently in the middle of reading Frank Herbert’s sci-fi magnum opus, Dune. The other day I came across the above prayer uttered by the main character, Paul, as he tries to come to grip with his world falling apart.

I found it poignantly applicable to the times we are all living through. People are afraid. I am afraid. We are in uncharted waters. In modern history, we have never faced anything like this. We don’t really know how things are going to progress. We don’t really know how effective the draconian measures we are putting into place will be at lessening the impact of COVID-19. We don’t know whether the measures we are putting into place will do more harm than the virus itself.

We don’t know when this will pass over us. We don’t know when we will be able to turn around and see the path of destruction this virus has wrought.

But we do know that it will pass over us. While we are in the thick of things it is hard to believe that they will ever change. Just three weeks ago everything was normal. And now here we are and everything is decidedly not normal. It feels like this will go on forever, but it won’t.

This will end. And we will remain.

But what to do in the meantime?

If fear is the mind-killer, then I believe that action is the fear-killer.

I think that is the real reason why our present circumstances are so hard to take. When you are quarantined inside, it is hard to take action. It is easy to feel powerless.

I know I have felt that way over the past week. Like what I do doesn’t matter. That whatever I might write this week wouldn’t make any sort of difference.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Every inch matters. Doing little things the right way makes a big difference over time. You never know what kind of impact a kind word of encouragement or offer of help can have.

Especially at times like these.

I want to do my part. This is a list of resources I have come up with after a little bit of research. The workbook is publicly editable so please add helpful resources you have come across as well and share to your network.

Pooling resources may not be much but at least it is something we can all do to try to help provide clarity and guidance during these difficult times.

Unfortunately, we have more to fear than fear itself these days. That doesn’t mean we need to give in to the fear. We can fight against it through action.

And we will beat it.

Just like we will beat this disease.

Just like we will beat any future challenge we face.