Back to School

A lot of the value from post-secondary school was from the live community that surrounded it.

Many schools have yet to figure how to deliver value online. How might we deliver a traditionally multi-thousand dollar educational experience remotely? Maybe the better question is, what do these thousands of students really care about? 

Is it possible to create genuine human connection and deliver meaningful experiences through online platforms, and if so where is that happening right now?

Thousands of students and parents are counting on schools to step up, because it’s hard to force ourselves to do more of the same thing we were doing in classrooms (e.g. not really paying attention) but online.

A cheap way out would be to digitalize lectures, give out the same assignments (but tweak them enough so that it’s possible to do it from home), and grade students the same way as we did before.

Or we could try something different.

It could be more emotionally engaging, the material more centred upon important problems between now and the future, or we could have more focus on how much is being learned rather than how much can be graded.

It’s a difficult situation to make for everyone involved, as education is critical at a time like this.

That’s my rant, and I hope everybody who has the luxury of going back to school stays safe and healthy.