Spring 2 Newsletter Publish - The Evolve Trust

The coronavirus pandemic is
reshaping education
By Jenny Anderson – Quartz Magazine
Page 2
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, staff and students are
making rapid changes to the way they teach and learn.
Critically, could this change the future of how we deliver as
educators and how our students learn? What
opportunities/barriers does distance learning throw up? To
answer some of these questions, I wanted the salient aspects
of Jenny Anderson’s (2020) article ‘The coronavirus pandemic
is reshaping education’.
To see this article online: https://qz.com/1826369/howcoronavirus-is-changing-education/
On Sunday, Feb. 23rd, rumors started that schools in the Lombardy region of Italy—the country’s
economic powerhouse—might close. Confirmed cases and deaths from the new coronavirus were
soaring. The healthcare system was teetering, and Italy had to dramatically change course in a bid to
halt the virus. By evening, the region was in lockdown.
Within 24 hours, Iain Sachdev, principal at the International School of Monza, had organized his teachers
and filmed a short video clip for students, faculty, and parents. School would open at 9am on Tuesday,
he said. Be patient, he implored. Taking a school online in 24 hours was a massive feat which would be
messy. Everyone would be learning.
Five weeks later, the school is still running—unfamiliar in many ways, identical in others. Teachers
teach via video conferencing every day. Kids participate using Padlet, a virtual post-it note system that
lets students share ideas; and Flipgrid, which lets teachers and students create short videos to share.
Students do individual work, group work, and confer with teachers when needed. Sachdev has
overhauled the schedule from 50-minute units to longer blocks. Teachers no longer use email, but
Microsoft Teams.
The International School of Monza is part of the world’s biggest educational technology (edtech)
experiment in history. With 1.5 billion students out of school and hundreds of millions attempting to
learn solely online, the experiment will reshape schools, the idea of education, and what learning looks
like in the 21st century. The pandemic is forcing educators, parents, and students to think critically,
problem-solve, be creative, communicate, collaborate and be agile. It is also revealing that there is
another way.
“It’s a great moment” for learning, says Andreas Schleicher, head of education at the OECD. “All the
red tape that keeps things away is gone and people are looking for solutions that in the past they did
not want to see,” he says. Students will take ownership over their learning, understanding more about
how they learn, what they like, and what support they need. They will personalize their learning, even
if the systems around them won’t. Schleicher believes that genie cannot be put back in the bottle.
“Real change takes place in deep crisis,” he says.
“You will not stop the momentum that will build.”