ICTC’s Future of Canada Series
Canada’s Instructional Revolution
Technology and Policy in a Post-Covid-19 World
This series has been produced in response to the COVID-19 crisis of Spring 2020. Be sure to check out the other articles in this series, including a recent piece on business continuity and the healthcare sector.
Along with the proliferation of educational technologies, the themes associated with distance learning, e-learning, blended learning, and the digital classroom are dominating conversations. Canada is entering a unique period where the standard for academic delivery has significantly shifted. Where conversations were previously focused on issues of best practice for digital/online curriculum delivery, they’re now debating software functionality, thorough cost/benefit analysis, connectivity limitations, and the availability of ongoing support for educators and parents. As provinces such as Ontario officially declare their academic year concluded, we’ve begun to see significant changes in the modes of content delivery and a re-imagining of our comfort levels, as a society, with tech in the classroom. As K-12 and post-secondary education in Canada look ahead to September 2020, we’re forced to consider some sobering new realities. Will the ongoing debates over class size be framed differently? Will teachers unions advocate for safer working environments for educators and for technology? Will the relationship between education and technology fundamentally improve as a result?
While ICTC monitors the ongoing effects of COVID-19 and its potential impacts on policy development through a series of research initiatives in the coming months, we recently connected with experts across Canada to gather initial feedback on technological innovations or developments that could transform a post-COVID-19 Canadian society.
From arts and culture to technology, education, healthcare and insurance, this ongoing series comprises insights provided by several contributors on technology’s role in shaping Canada’s future.
This week’s articles investigate the potential implications of COVID-19 on Canada’s academic space, outlining a sobering future as it pertains to Canada’s relationship between technology and education. The following highlights educators Taylor Coumbs and Dr. Gary Hepburn and their observations on the potential re-invigoration of traditional classroom learning through the creative use of technology and the early warning signs of a potential impending revolution in education.
The World After This: Education
By Taylor Coumbs, Elementary School Teacher, OCT
Before COVID-19 reached Canada, Ontario’s Ministry of Education, educators, parents, and students were debating the proposed mandatory online learning courses for Ontario secondary school students. Many raised concerns about the effects of these courses on students around the province, namely access to quality internet and technology at home, the isolation it caused, and the motivation necessary to participate in self-directed learning. The government took these concerns seriously and has since modified their stance on mandatory e-learning in Ontario. However, the seriousness of this pandemic has forced government officials, teachers, and parents to work together to provide quality learning as we navigate the coming months of physical distancing while considering what education looks like for students right now and how it may change in Canada after this.
Families in Ontario and throughout Canada are now faced with indefinite school closures. Nationally, each provincial and territorial government is responsible for its own education system, with the exception of federally funded schools for Indigenous peoples. All have of them have used school closures as the primary approach to prevent the spread of the virus across our communities. While these efforts are necessary to flatten the curve, people across the country face massive inequities in accessing the fundamental tools for online learning. Social-economic status, geographical location, and access to technology vary widely by region, even by neighbourhood, throughout Canada. And even though some companies have removed data caps for a number of clients — and the Ontario government is working with school boards to ensure all families can gain access to the technology they need to learn at home — we are still going to face massive gaps in student learning.
With no precedent and very little time, education systems and their educators went online almost overnight. The learning platforms being leveraged, and their related expectations, seem to differ across each province and territory. Educators have found themselves grappling with how to provide consistent and high-quality education for families in extremely unique circumstances.
Every child is different. Every family is different.
Ontario’s education minister has made it clear that online education does not replace the classroom learning experience. And how can it? When children step into classrooms, there is a certain level of equity that is attainable. At home during a pandemic, an educator’s ability to assess student readiness and accountability decreases, and teachers may struggle to serve their students as they would in a classroom. While it may seem overwhelming and bleak, educators are creative and resilient, and will always find ways to continue student learning.
What happens to education after COVID-19 is impossible to predict. Likely, online learning will continue to play a key role in the education of Canadian kids but with a reinvigorated appreciation for a traditional classroom community. Ideally, our elected officials will work alongside education professionals to close the gaps of accessibility and find successful ways to meet the range of individual student needs.
If education is the great equalizer, we need to take the time to ensure that children do, in fact, have equal and equitable access to high-quality education. That is what we, as Canadians, need to take into the world after this.
The Coming Technology Revolution in Higher Education as a Result of COVID-19
By Gary Hepburn, PhD, Dean, The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education, Ryerson University
Higher Education (HE) has been challenged in an unprecedented manner by the COVID-19 crisis. Institutions around the world have made a rapid transition to online delivery of all their programming. A small number of institutions that already delivered some or all of their programming online were well positioned to adapt; however, most institutions faced a far greater challenge. While many higher education (HE) institutions have significant offerings, others have far less experience in the online-course space. None were ready for the sudden need to radically implement online learning across the board.
Up to now, the majority of faculty and instructors at most HE institutions have limited experience with online learning. Despite this, they were astonishingly quick to ensure that students have the opportunity to complete their current courses and have shown an impressive willingness to plan future online courses. Around the world, most all faculty and instructors must now become familiar with online learning technologies and reconsider highly embedded elements of the traditional teaching and learning experience. These elements include engaging students in completely new ways and reconsidering longstanding practices such as examinations and course lectures. Without a doubt, these changes are unlikely to be forgotten when our institutions return to more normal operations. There is an instructional revolution ahead, and instructional technology will be a central factor.
Students have also had their learning experience upended. The physical campus was quickly removed as a focal point of their education and has been replaced by various synchronous and asynchronous elements that provide a new way of participating in their education. Although most current students have grown up with this technology, many are new to using technology as a primary means of facilitating their learning. They will adapt quickly. Equipped with their new experiences with online education, almost all HE students will have a re-imagined sense of what is possible and desirable from their education. Increased student demands about the effective use of technology will become the new normal.
HE will never be as it was only weeks ago. After many years of slowly adopting new technologies, there has been a sudden and dramatic leap forward. Institutions will need to reconsider the priority they place on instructional technology and the ways in which they deliver education. Those who do not adapt will be left behind. The delivery of courses and programs in HE will never be the same.
ICTC’s Future of Canada Series
In times of crisis and recovery, Canada maintains a strong track record of social advancement. As we find ourselves re-evaluating how we’ll respond to a world permanently altered by a pandemic, the larger outcomes remain unknown. What is clear however, is our need for socially-minded, ethical innovation that moves the needle forward to advance Canada’s evolving digital economy.
Other posts in this series:
*The views and opinions shared as submissions to this article are those of the authors and do no not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC).
