Thinking About Learning in a Time of Social Distancing

As we find ourselves thrown into online teaching and learning, I have found myself reflecting a lot on how we can create and implement meaningful learning experiences online. As educators, we spend so much time thinking about how we can construct these kinds of experiences in the classroom, but this becomes infinitely more complicated and difficult when trying to construct these experiences remotely. In the classroom we have the benefit of a dialogue and redirection, the ability to provide materials to the whole class. Without this give and take, it has become more necessary than ever to find online ways of learning that are:

-       Highly accessible (which becomes a much greater challenge for those in lower income brackets, and those who are younger)

-       Able to provide students with some kind of engaging and meaningful learning.

It is unfortunate that perhaps these two requirements do not always go hand in hand. What may be most accessible to students is simply sending them handouts or a list of questions, but this is not necessarily the most interesting or meaningful learning experience, and is certainly not as engaging as a discussion in the classroom. In order to make learning experiences as meaningful for students at home, so much more work is needed to be done on the part of the

Teacher – and even then, lacks the benefit of a dialogue where you can assess student's understanding throughout the lesson in order to improve their learning and answer their questions.

 I feel that this time has been such an interesting reflection of the role of technology in education. Tech can certainly enhance learning, and help provide meaningful learning experiences, but technology cannot replace the teacher, and the benefits that come from a face to face connection in education.

Courtesy of the real Lydia@NU