Promoting Change (EDLD 5305)

I have to be honest, seeing Sal Khan sitting on stage in the first few videos made my day. As a high school math teacher I rely on Khan Academy in many different ways throughout my teaching and even within my own learning. The change that was discussed within these videos is so important, frankly, because it is needed and necessary. The evidence is there. The world is everchanging around us with technology (a fancy name for new tools) at our fingertips, but many educational settings remain stagnant. I find myself often sitting in-service days listening to guest speakers and watching videos provided to us from a district level, but the ideas that are gained from this are not feasible due to curriculum and district norms that have been in place for years. It is almost as if everyone is in agreement with the desire for change, but no one takes action.

COVID-19 has rocked out world in so many ways, however, the disruption it has caused has the potential to impact education system as we know it in a positive way. I wrapped up the 2019-2020 schoolyear from March-June with all asynchronous lessons. These were pre-recorded by myself and posted for the week where students would watch at their own pace, pause when needed, and could reach out to me or their peers in discussion boards. On the flip side, throughout the 2020-2021 schoolyear I taught synchronous lessons to students both in class and via Microsoft Teams, which seemed to diverge from the blended learning model a bit. And now, as I begin the 2021-2022 schoolyear I can’t help but think about the push we have received from the district to return to “normal.”

My question is, with all of these new learned skills for students and teachers alike, why return? The technology is there, Sal Khan has shown us this with his flex model on Khan Academy. When I review Algebra 1 with Honors Algebra 2 students over the first week of school, I encourage them to make use of Khan Academy as a resource. The same lesson can be taught to the same student 25 different ways by 25 different people, and it could take until the 26th person for it to click. As the videos discussed, students are often pushed along, pushed to the next course without mastering the previous. This flexible blended learning format hits the buzz words/ideas of meeting students where they are and having a deep understand of prior knowledge.