Education Undergoes a Revolution in a Matter of Months

May 12, 2020 – This morning I learned that many universities across Canada plan to startup in September largely online. Right across the country, the move away from bricks and mortar schools is being driven by the current pandemic. Quebec is attempting to return to physical classrooms in its public schools but the reaction from many parents is one of caution. Even then, where children are going classroom sizes have been reduced by more than half with physical distancing being reinforced. With a little more than a month-and-a-half to the summer break, some provinces appear to be keeping physical schools closed until September.

I have always advocated for open education, taking advantage of the online experience as an extension of the physical classroom. For several years I worked with a software developer here in Toronto that had successfully implemented a virtual classroom for Grade 7 students. It had the feel of a social media site and more. Students could interact with others and their teachers in a virtual classroom. They had access to online resources and tools to help them do group projects. The proof of acceptance came at the end of the school year when the students continued to use the virtual classroom throughout the summer months to stay connected with each other, learning collectively and on their own.

Necessity has become the mother of invention in this pandemic. It is driving a paradigm shift in education at a pace no one could have anticipated a mere six months ago. Then we would have debated the merits of online learning versus the classroom. In Ontario, the government faced enormous pushback from teachers, parents, and students, when it announced that some high school curriculum was going to be moved to the online environment. The government backed down. But the COVID-19 outbreak around the world is putting online learning in the forefront. From elementary to post-secondary education, the online learning future is happening now.

The notable futurist, Peter Diamandis, calls the phenomenon “Zoom University,” named after the popular online meeting software that has been adopted by business, government, and educational institutions. In a recent newsletter, he describes “the most dramatic industry pivot of this century” in talking about how 1.38 billion students, primarily children, are now doing online learning because physical classrooms are closed.

How fast has the educational technology market grown because of the current pandemic? Last year digital learning platforms and content attracted $18.66 billion in investment. Now forecasts point to a market reaching $400 billion by 2025, and that’s a conservative estimate. Diamandis talks about a future “in which the convergence of 5G, AI and AR/VR digitizes, dematerializes, demonetizes and democratizes education, we may soon be able to offer the same level of personalized education to every single student, independent of socioeconomic status … in the same way that Google democratized access to information, and YouTube did so for entertainment.”

Diamandis sees new modes of learning coming from the sudden adoption of online resources including:

1. Artificial Intelligence-enabled one-on-one teaching at home offering personalized content based on individual performance data. For example, technology developed by Affectiva uses iPads along with “emotional AI” from MIT Media Lab to provide an effective online-learning experience. The Affectiva platform uses computer vision, speech analytics, deep learning, and lots of observed data to analyze whether a child in front of a screen is excited, bored, or not understanding. It then has the smarts to adjust learning strategies on the fly to improve engagement.
2. Gaming in education has been seen as a way to do experiments and solve problems. Now it is coming to the forefront. Games can draw students into course material more actively. They can learn from failure, setbacks, trial, and error. In the end, the skill-building tactics and strategies applied within a game situation lead to better learning outcomes.
3. Education may evolve into a subscribed-to service particularly at the post-secondary level. This may alter baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral designations permanently as learning becomes a life-time ongoing experience to which you subscribe. Universities are already setup to make this a reality with online curriculum and open university classrooms that can be audited by almost anyone. I have been able to virtually sit in on lectures at prestigious schools from the University of London to Stanford. What universities can begin to do is monetize these online learning experiences through offering subscriptions in the same way people subscribe to magazines and newspapers both in-print and digital.

There is a darker side to the shift to online learning.

1. We may end up reinforcing bad learning approaches that confuse and turn off students. Passive learning is the dullest form of education, and today much of what is offered online comes in that format with YouTube lectures. One of the reasons I never attended introductory course lectures in university, and instead spent my time reading on subjects in the library stacks, was for the very reason that I am not a good passive learner.
2. Teachers today are not taught about online learning. For them, it is a strange new world, and they need to be brought up to speed about the tools and techniques. To succeed, therefore, teachers will need to compare notes and collaborate, learning on the fly. Improved resource and technique sharing will become paramount to make the virtual classroom model work.
3. Not every student can be connected for lots of reasons. Socioeconomic conditions may make it impossible for a student to learn remotely. Internet connectivity varies by locality. Learning resources like tablets, laptops, and desktop computers may be cost-prohibitive to low-income families.
4.  During the pandemic, if educators blow the online learning experience with students it may be far harder to get buy-in for the future. Figuring out quickly what is and is not working becomes a prime responsibility for teachers, schools and school boards.

With what will we end up in this new paradigm of online learning?

Learning, like climate change, knows no boundaries. As education shifts to the Internet, teachers, and students will collaborate and learn from each other regardless of where they live. Knowledge and its pursuit will travel across cities, states, provinces, countries, and continents. That doesn’t mean there no longer will be “bricks and mortar” classrooms and schools. They will continue to have a place. But it does mean a richer, and more exciting learning world that will extend beyond the traditional boundaries of formal education.