Remote Learning’s Aftermath

Article

Leotis D. Swopes

Remote Learning’s Aftermath

The power of the pandemic has forced school districts across the nation to overhaul in-person learning. No comparable human force had ever affected the education of students so abruptly. It has tested our thinking and challenged our ability to execute an equitable, yet responsible form of instruction to students. Like a person learning to swim, teachers and students were thrown into the proverbial remote learning waters and told to “stroke, stroke!” Teachers, who were not techsavvy, found themselves “learning on the run” ...the pandemic while simultaneously familiarizing students with remote learning protocols. They kicked, stroked, provides a and floated the best way they could; attempting future-focused to create a semblance of in-person learning. occurrence that Each successive day was like being thrown back into those turbulent waters until they began to has the potential to swim, though technique, efficiency and style personalize every were lacking. Yet, because of their struggles, the child’s educational pandemic has provided an unimaginable context for future learning.

experience.

There are two noteworthy ramifications forged by the pandemic. First, a practical resolve. The initial launching of remote learning didn’t provide a solid example of “What Works.” Any teacher hesitancy to use remote learning needed time for trial and error before it could fashion their skills. However, after a year into remote learning, a baseline has been established. The

gained knowledge will be evaluated and analyzed with fidelity. Teacher familiarity with the pedagogy of technology will have added a powerful tool to their arsenal of teaching strategies! This will provide teachers the wherewithal to more effectively influence student outcomes through a virtual model. All mitigated by the pandemic.

Secondly, the pandemic provides a future-focused occurrence that has the potential to personalize every child’s educational experience. The technological platform used to operate remote learning inherently provides a recipe for Individualizing Education on a Mass Scale. No other tool before technology has had the power to prescribe an individualized educational plan for each and every student. Can you imagine, that?

An individualized plan developed for a student would not replace in-person nor remote learning. It would seriously accentuate both! The technology already exists to do this! Remote Learning has given teachers a two-fisted approach for imparting knowledge to students and perhaps a third: Individualizing education on a mass scale.

Prior to the pandemic, in-person learning was the primary mode of instruction. Remote Learning-type technologies were used for supplemental or remedial services to students. The pandemic has made remote learning the primary form of pedagogy. It has brought many more teachers into the technology world of their students and has provided the most powerful tool to have impacted the teaching and learning process to their fingertips. Also, it has provided the kind of access for students (and their parents) to monitor their progress, regardless of where the student may sit. We can only guess what teaching and learning would have been without remote learning during the pandemic!

Leotis Swopes received a terminal degree from the University of NebraskaLincoln in Curriculum and Instruction. Currently, he volunteers time and service working with the Commission for the Study of Demographics and Diversity in Cook County, Illinois. He has worked at all three levels of schooling as a teacher and administrator for over forty years. The majority of his time served was in educational leadership administrative positions, as either a building principal or district superintendent. He served as a high school principal in Gary, Indiana (Roosevelt High School) and elementary principal in Kenosha, Wisconsin (Lincoln Elementary School). He has been a Superintendent in Cairo School District 1, (I)l; Posen-Robbins School District 143.5 (Il); and Thornton Township High School District 205 (IL).