Are we at the tipping point of innovation?

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a dramatic interruption in the way we do schooling across the globe. Schools in SE Asia have been shut since January and in the US, Europe and Australasia since March in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus.

Necessity has called us to reimagine our educational constructs as schools on a global scale are dramatically changing their pedagogical delivery – in a way that many of us would not have thought possible just a few short months ago.The World Economic Forum sees a silver lining in the dark COVID-19 cloud, citing it as a “catalyst” that could finally change “centuries-old, lecture-based approaches to teaching, entrenched institutional biases, and outmoded classrooms.” Or as one school superintendent reportedly said, “This was a nice, swift kick in the ass to get out there and innovate.”

One of our early lessons is that you cannot just replicate what happens in a face-to-face classroom to the virtual environment. Attempts to do so leave both teachers and students exhausted in video-conferences and assignments that take much longer to complete at a distance.

The role of the teacher is being redefined - a move away from deliverer of content to facilitator and coach. Teachers are facilitating tasks that require greater levels of student independence and agency. This means that the teacher needs to focus more on providing quicker formative feedback, concentrating on skills and understanding of tasks.

The relationship between school and home is changing. Classroom walls have been knocked down overnight, and parents share the classroom with the teacher and student. Parents are being given a deep insider look into the educational process like never before. There is definitely a new level of transparency, where parents can witness teachers teach.Will parents in the future demand ubiquitous oversight of their children’s learning? Will all players - parents, teachers and students - change their expectations and behaviours based on their online experiences? Will all demand less 'classroom' time?

Collaboration between schools has never been so rich. As schools prepared for campus shut down they shared their contingency plans (which I captured an signposted in Covid-19: Head of School - What's your contingency plan?) and as online learning became the norm they shared lessons learned on a weekly basis ( Lessons we are learning about teaching and learning online). The COVID-19 pandemic has underlined how interconnected people of the world are. In the future our students will understand their interconnectedness  and navigate across boundaries to leverage their differences and work in a globally collaborative way.

The challenge of how we assess student progress and achievement has been brought into sharp relief with the cancellation of international examinations all over the globe. But it has also raised concerns about not only how we are testing but what we are testing. Is this an opportunity of moving summative assessment away from high-stakes examinations to exhibitions of learning where students present their work portfolio style? Here the teacher acts as a facilitator helping students curate their work.

Management: we have learnt anew the importance of having systems and protocols in place. We have also learnt that meetings can be shorter online! How will this change how we do business (will staff meetings become collaborative learning space online? What about leadership meetings | board meetings)?

People matter: We have learnt the beauty of human contact, of being with each other and sharing life's ups and downs. Is this our greatest learning: that people matter, everyone is precious? Africans have much to teach us in their lovely concept of ubuntu: 'I am because we are', or as an African proverb has it: "If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." So far, many of the experiences of virtual schools has exposed how ed tech has largely failed to do what would be most powerful: leverage the relationship between teacher and learner, as opposed to just broadcasting stuff. However, pair good teachers, who coach and facilitate, with good content and good tech (adaptive, interactive learning platforms that personalise learning), and the sky is the limit.