Jerry Schulz – June 10, 2022

There are two related concepts that help to understand where the Covid-19 pandemic has quickly taken us in our use of technology in learning. These are the concepts of transformation and disruption.

The adoption of technology has the power to transform human activities and especially learning. And this has been going on for thousands of years. For example, in around 1450 Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, which made it much easier and cheaper to print books. This new technology greatly transformed how we could acquire knowledge.

A more recent example was the introduction of word processing technology in the late 1970s and early 1980s. If you are old enough, you will remember how challenging it was to simply produce a page of text before then. You had to write out your draft in longhand, revise it, and then use a typewriter to type it onto a sheet of paper. And any error was a crisis, possibly requiring starting over with a new sheet.

The transformative technology of word processing couldn’t have been an easier sell. Once you were exposed to it, there was no going back, and within a few years the old typewriters became museum pieces. But although this transformation was extremely beneficial, there still was quite a bit of related disruption. The office workers had to be outfitted with the new technology and learn to use it. Of course, typewriter manufacturers such as Smith Corona and Olivetti had to adopt new product lines or go out of business.

And in the office, there were crews of typists and stenographers whose skills were no longer needed. The office processes had to be redone (e.g., younger lawyers preferred to key their own documents), and the typists and stenographers had to adopt new roles.

Thanks to Education Week for the photo.

Technology-Driven Transformation in Learning Has Been Slow

For decades the use of technology in learning has also been driving some transformation. And, it has also brought about some related disruption. But our education world has been a tough target for transformation. This is partly due to our graded structure, and how learning happens in the classroom.

The need for virtual learning in the Covid-19 pandemic has at last greatly accelerated technology-driven transformation. And the pandemic also caused quite a bit of related disruption.

The Pandemic Accelerated Technology-Driven Transformation in Several Ways

There is plenty of good news. Students and educators acquired new hardware, software, and other technology tools. The technology quickly got better and became easier to use (e.g., Google Meet, MS Teams, Zoom). And teachers and students acquired the skills needed to put the technology to work.

Acceleration of existing trends included these shifts:

• Districts and schools providing one-on-one device coverage for students quickly went from a little over 50% in early 2020 to almost 100% today. In 2020, an Education Week survey reported about 57 percent of educators said each student in their schools had a device.[i] A similar survey conducted in late March and early April of 2022 found this number is now 85%—and  I presume the other 15% are mostly schools who simply haven’t given devices to kids in all grades.[ii]
• Wireless Internet connectivity within school buildings became ubiquitous, and districts and nonprofits worked to ensure families in rural areas and disadvantaged families in urban areas had connectivity at home.
• There was a great expansion in the use of virtual learning options to enable students to connect from home. And although almost all schools and families have returned to in-person models, everyone now can use the virtual learning technology and has the related skills.
• Schools increased their use of learning management systems (LMS) such as Google classroom and similar technology, to automate interactions and provide and distribute electronic resources.
• Resources that were shifted to electronic form included electronic curriculum and texts.
• There was also an increase in the use of academic software, especially products that support personalized learning.

In the process the pandemic also provided better support for virtual learning models such as the flipped classroom. And it provided improved technology support for personalized learning and project-based learning.

But This Transformation Brought Some Harmful Disruption

So, what’s not to like? That’s where transformation and disruption come in.

In the spring of 2020, the pandemic forced a move to virtual learning in almost all school districts. There seemed to be little choice at the time. Most schools coped with this challenge by using technology to support home learners through virtual learning sessions and other methods. By the fall of 2020 most schools began returning to in-person models for most students.

As noted above, the use of technology accelerated a number of forms of transformation. But the combination of this transformation and the virtual learning it enabled also caused quite a bit of disruption. And in some cases, this was partly responsible for lessening student achievement.

A big thing we learned the hard way is that students are the most engaged when they learn using in-person models. And the challenge of a virtual model is the students tend to become disengaged in a number of ways. By disengaged we mean not being as involved in the class activities, and in time not caring as much for school in general.

The older students are, the less of an issue this may be. And it would not seem to be a big an issue for college students, who have used virtual models for many years, but we’ll talk about college in a future blog posting.

The pandemic also brought a greater appreciation of how the structure of the school day and the physical presence of the school staff helps kids to focus and be engaged.

All these issues resulted in what is being called the “academic slide,” as students didn’t achieve at the normal rates, and now they are behind expected levels.

The worst impact was some detachment from school as an institution, and in some cases the actual loss of students who have somehow disappeared from the school world. All these problems are more severe among students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The increased use of technology has also increased student screen time. An annual report by Common Sense Media on “The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens, 2021,” reported that by 2021 screen use had increased to the point that, “On average, 8-to 12-year-olds use about five and a half hours of screen media per day (5:33), while 13- to 18-year-olds use about eight and a half hours of screen media (8:39).” [iii]

These figures include some television viewing, but they don’t include screen time in school. And the figures are up 17% in just the two years from 2019 to 2021. The 8:39 figure is particularly scary, since the kids must also spend some time in school and sleeping, and there are only 24 hours in the day.

Technology transformation has also disrupted the lives of teachers.  An article in Education Week reported that “Nearly two-thirds of teachers, principals, and district leaders who participated in a survey conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in December said they were experiencing technology fatigue. And 79 percent said they felt their teacher colleagues were tired of all the tech use they have experienced over the past two years.” [iv]

We Can Fix This!

This is all very discouraging, especially for those who have successfully put technology to work and who continue to believe that if used properly technology has the power to increase our kids’ achievement and help prepare them for the challenging future they face.

But how can we mitigate these disruptive impacts and now turn this transformation into a positive force for our kids?

Let’s catch our breath, give this some thought, and consider these issues in our next blog entry on “How to Make Technology Transformation Beneficial and Not Disruptive.”

Until then, do you have any ideas on how we might manage this transformation? Leave a comment below under “Leave a Reply.” Or send me an e-mail at schulzj@jerryschulz.com.

---

[i]       Bushweller, K. (2020, June 4). How COVID-19 Is Shaping Tech Use; What That Means When Schools Reopen. Education Week.

[ii]       Klein, A. (2022, May 17). Case Study: The Hard Transition to 1-to-1 Computing Continues. Education Week.

[iii]      Rideout, V., Peebles, A., Mann, S., & Robb, M. B. (2022). The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens, 2021. Common Sense Media.

[iv]      Sparks, S. (2022, April 12). Students Are Behaving Badly in Class. Excessive Screen Time Might Be to Blame. Education Week.