Moving On

 It's hard to believe how much time has passed and how much the world has changed since my last post.  In 2020, we took learning online, big time!

The COVID19 pandemic has changed education like never before.  In some ways, it has been a catalyst for change, a catalyst that was sorely needed in education in order to bring it into the 21st century.  We could not and should not still be learning like this:

Image attribution:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:StateLibQld_1_100348.jpg

Yet the acceleration into more contemporary modes of learning, in an online space, was also fraught with challenges.  Educators everywhere, unprepared for the shift and anxious in this new, open way of teaching and attempting to manage their families during lockdowns at the same time as adapting quickly to vastly different ways of teaching were vulnerable to products and platforms everywhere, peddling their wares.

Coming together in an online workshop forum, our local team offered a simplified approach to educators wanting to have support.  Google Meet and Google Sites, with limited links, to support learners in their changing education.

Learners everywhere were unprepared also.  Many had no internet or devices at home.  Those that did, were not necessarily prepared for the task of managing their time and online distractions in order to really fly in their learning. Some learners fared far better than they did usually in the classroom.  Some just disappeared.  Some learned from horse floats atop our remote hills.  Some with 'Nanny' (Kiwi for 'Nana or Gran or Grandma) sitting next to them, checking that they were focused, elbowing them when they weren't  and learning alongside their mokopuna (NZ Māori for grandchild).  The whole thing was a giant experiment for many.

Learners who had been part of schools that were already undertaking the use of Google Sites for learning found the transition easier, yet still many struggled with the lack of resources or the lack of preparedness to undertake online learning solo, without their teacher alongside them.

Here, in July 2021, many things in New Zealand have returned to normal.  Our trans tasman bubble between NZ and Australia has opened, and closed... and opened again.  Vaccinations are slow to get to NZ... unsurprising when hundreds are dying in other countries daily.  Many here are still wary of a vaccine developed under accelerated timeframes due to the dire need for them.  

What will stick?

Will the lessons we learned during the lockdowns in NZ continue to be acknowledged, explored and applied in preparedness for future such challenges?  Or will we head back to our classrooms hoping never to have to undertake a Google Meet again?

What can we do differently?  What will we?