IP 5 Global Health

 

COIVD-19 pandemic is a big bang on global education system which accelerates or, to some extent, push all education institutions to reflect the teaching model when no in-person instruction could take place, whether agree or not, accept or not, across all ages and grades, rural area or urban, developed or underdeveloped regions. I would call it “techceleration” in education system.

 

Global health crisis lays the new foundation of education, technology makes it executionable and becomes the main teaching method under the big backdrop. The fast growing technology in education further strengthen the development of technology itself – the fast growing new apps, new gadgets, new education content provider – making technology in education more accessible across all levels of audience – adult or kids, science or art, language or geography – you name it.

 

While technology in education liberalized the space and time for students to learn, it poses new challenges and issues that are worth for every education practioner to think about:

 

1.      Impact on students:

A. learning effect

How does virtual learning result compare to in-person instructions?

According to the study shared in the commentary by Megan Kuhfeld et al. 2020 How is Covid-19 affecting student learning – initial findings from fall 2020, the researcher uses qualitative research method and compare the learning result for grades 3-8 of remote study vs in-person study. The result is interesting: Students in grades 3-8 performed similarly in reading to same-grade students in fall 2019 while the math achievement of students in 2020 was about 5 to 10 percentile points lower compared to same-grade students the prior year. Overall, the majorit of students made learnings gains in both reading and math though gains in math were smaller.

 

The long term effect however, is still unknown.

B. mental health issues, study motivation

What do kids do and feel about distance learning at home without communication to their peers and no interpersonal interactions with peers or teachers?

 

According to studies by Paul W. Bennett 2020 The educational experience has been substandard for students during COVID-19, the comparative research findings are somewhat worrying:

One in five Boston public schoolchildren were found to be “unplugged” from Google Classroom, and significant technical challenges and language difficulties were keeping children from continuing school online.

Mining quantitative research into student use of Zearn, an online math program, a Harvard and Brown university research team reported that student progress in math between March 15 and April 30 decreased by 48 percent in classrooms located in low-income ZIP codes.

Most high school respondents in Upper Canada District School Board based in Brockville (surveyed June 1 to 8, 2020) said that they either “dislike” distance learning (34 percent) or “struggle at times” (19 percent) with online studies. When asked what challenges they faced, 50.9 percent cited “engagement in learning at home,” the most prevalent response, followed by “workload or schedule of assignments.”

Most children “attending” school online (60 percent) were unmotivated, but still “keeping up” with the reduced academic expectations.

Children and teens spent the vast majority of their time glued to small screens, dominated by watching TV/Netflix, YouTube (88 percent), and playing video games (74 percent).

 

Over half of teens ages 13 to 17 reported needing more help with their work.

 

Missing seeing friends and participating in extracurricular activities was their biggest concern, but fewer than 1 in 10 (8 percent) were willing to concede that they missed going to school.

 

2.      Impact on parents: more parent engagement, less educator accountability?

Parents are no doubt much more engaged during pandemic and post a question if distance learning shed teachers’ responsibility off to parents? This also posts challenges to parents as they have to “learn” or pick up the knowledge again which normally no longer practice on a daily basis and “teach” their own kids in a not properly trained way but just press the button to turn on the gadget!

3. Impact on School: increase tech gadget expense and investment

 

Estimates suggest US K-12 schools spent $26-$41 billion annually on education technology during the year before pandemic and over $50bil between 2020-2021. SIMBA information estimates total K-12 digital instructional materials were increased from $5.4b to $8.1b.

This poses several issues and concerns:

1) Does it set a higher threshold for family financial situation as they need to spend more on buying PC, iPad or other learning gadgets? Does it eliminate underdeveloped area students to get access to education? Does it constitute another format of discrimination against less affluent families?

2) What are the regulation for these edtech products that could prove the efficacy?

3) Who currently performs efficacy research on these products?

4) How to properly assess learning effect for each individual learner?

5) How and who shall keep track of what is being spent and used?

In summary, global health lays a new foundation for teaching model and poses new challenges for instructors. Technology is a double-edged sword. While it still takes time to properly evaluate the true effect of technology during and post COVID, in-person classroom teaching is still indispensable as kids do not just learn knowledge but grow socially in a community.

 

References:

§  Kuhfeld, M., Soland, J., Tarasawa, B., Johnson, A., Ruzek, E., & Lewis, K. (2020, December 3). How is COVID-19 affecting student learning? Question 2Links to an external site.. Brown Center Chalkboard, Brookings.

§  Bennette, P. W. (2020, July 20). The educational experience has been substandard for students during COVID-19Links to an external site.. Policy Options.

§  The Canadian Commission for UNESCO. (2020, April 20). COVID-19 Is creating a world crisis in educationLinks to an external site..

§  Burgess, S., & Sievertsen, H. H. (2020, April 1). Schools, skills, and learning: The impact of COVID-19 on educationLinks to an external site.. Vox.

§  EdTech Evidence Exchange (2021 March). https://edtechevidence.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/FINAL-K12-EdTech-Funding-Analysis_v.1.pdf