ReImagining The Classroom

ReImagining The Classroom

When I first started to adopt computer technology, I quickly realized that reading everything I could about the tools and how to use them and what the problems were with implementation would help me in my desire to use the new tools effectively.  From the very start, it was obvious to those who were implementing technology in the classroom that the tool, used properly, would inevitably lead to change in the classroom itself.  Nothing has born out that prophetic vision more than what educators are now talking about as they return to their classrooms following the Pandemic lockdown.  Since so many classrooms are going to be changed completely, things like the size of the classroom and the placement of the desks and what makes a classroom and so forth are all going to  have to be thought out.  It is all well and good to close down a Grade 6 class for two full months and then to bring the students back and tell them that they have to observe social distance and to require them to have everything washing carefully between uses and  having to line up to get into the school and supervise the washrooms and so forth and so on,   But how many poorly paid educators in small schools are going to want to have to attend to all of those details and still have a day for teaching and their sanity at the end of the day.  And if some things are going to be online, what's the point of trying to keep everyone at the same pace every day.  It would be far better to go all the way and individualize instruction as much as possible. Why keep kids in a grade for 10 months so that they can enter and exit at the same time. Let the smarter kids, the more able students do a grade in fewer than 10 months.  Why even consider things in grades.  Let kids enter school when they are ready, allow a teacher to tutor when they are needed and let them go off on their own to learn or tackle projects when they are able to on their own.  Schools won't need grades nor forced attendance every day or a curriculum that everyone follows. We will have to return to a model that is not based upon the industrial assembly line which has lasted for over a century. It just won't fit with even a blended mix between face-to-face and  online learning.  There is so much to consider now that we have to and it is so exciting to watch as the changes happen before our eyes.  And make no mistake about it. When teachers are needed for two shifts in a classroom so that there can be social distancing and there are to enough teachers to go round, accommodations will be put in place that will inevitably lead to changes in school over all....AND IT IS ABOUT TIME.