A friend of mine recently noted that, of all the occupations that once seemed viable only through in-person contact, education has put up the most resistance to online platforms. This friend should know, too. A veteran community college educator for 25 years and a trailblazer for over a decade in on-line pedagogy, she spent the bulk of the pandemic training and coaching teachers through this upheaval. Her point is valid. Professions such as fitness trainers, therapists, career coaches, financial advisors, doctors, religious ministers, etc quickly and quietly jumped to the online domain and are doing remarkably well. Even some hair stylists have made laudable attempts to guide their clients through on-line trims and touch-ups as the quarantine drags on. 

Part one of this piece mentioned that teachers tend to teach the way they were taught. It’s my belief that this is why teachers on the whole, unlike other professions (looking at you zoo-cams!) have been somewhat unimaginative and downright resistant to shifting to an on-line teaching modality. What’s really striking is the fact that remote teaching/learning is not new- even by a longshot.  Correspondence courses must be close to 100 years old by now, if not older and on-line teaching has been offered, in various formats, for at least two decades. Remember all the excitement for MOOC’s in our very recent past? 

The elephant in the room isn’t the aggressive stance many teachers may have against “zoom-school” and education technology right now.  It’s a much deeper, far reaching self-realization that we educators no longer own knowledge. Educators of a certain age were brought up in an era in which knowledge was only dispensed by teachers and professors via books and lectures. Our own knowledge base is currently completely eclipsed by the internet.  If knowledge was liberated and democratised by the internet more than 25 years ago, why do many educators still teach as if it’s 1989, and we are the sole access point to our educational discipline? From international marketing, to abnormal psychology to art history, and the STEM fields, anyone can google (or you tube) information about these topics. Prior to the pandemic students of all levels already used the internet to supplement learning, sites such as Khan academy, udemy and coursera immediately come to mind. Our new pedagogic goal now must create a curriculum that shifts outcomes from knowledge acquisition (which is readily available without an instructor) to knowledge application, that incorporates all the knowledge on the internet and outstanding educational technology platforms.

Additionally, this new pedagogy must include a curriculum that teaches how to be critical of all the available information out there. Critical thinking may be the most important skill we teach in this century. In this age of alternate facts and fake news our knowledge base is currently in a crisis of reality and truth. Educators should take the lead in pushing for more and better curriculum in digital literacy, ethics, and critical thinking at all levels 

This is a watershed moment in education and the time is ripe for innovative collaboration between educators at all levels, administrators, researchers and the education technology industry. Back in the 1980’s a small generation took the best parts of the pedagogic extremes being taught at the time- structured fundamentals and creative free license- and went on to build upon and expand the largest knowledge network in the history of our world. It’s time for education to catch up with technology and I can’t think of a better group of thinkers and creators to lead this critical charge.