A new narrative about the technologies of education was being reported when millions of students and thousands of teachers were asked to change everything in a matter of days in the spring of 2020. The new teaching was cast in a familiar language to offer some semblance of normality – thus the popular discourse was replete with adjectives to qualify what was happening to education, from kindergarten to doctoral studies. Terms that were immediately mobilized included “online,” “digital,” “remote, “distance” to name a few. These terms seemed to cast what teachers like me were doing, and what our students were experiencing, into something we, and those watching the education establishment, could relate to. However, the fault lines of this process are now paraded across the front pages of newspapers as it becomes clear that thousands of students were shut off from the new narrative of education because of barriers that ranged from technological to financial.

The conversation continues as educational institutions address the future, again creating narratives that seem to claw education back into the “normal” that existed at the beginning of 2020. Multiple scenarios to re-start colleges have been proposed; economists are lamenting the end of the education industry in the form it has existed; the leaders of the academic industry are struggling with the financial realities of empty classroom and dormitories. Yet, this is a point where an opportunity has presented that could be embraced. The possibilities are not so much in developing scenarios and despairing at the depressing bottom lines, but to recast the story of education within a new technological narrative.

The universal and accepted technology of instruction has remained embedded in a face to face method where the teacher and the student are expected to be in the same “real” space at the same time – the ubiquitous classroom. From proscenium classroom of the modern universities to the little rooms in the government schools in remote villages of the Himalayas – the presumption has been that the teacher and the students are in the classroom – the defining technology of teaching. For a long period there were few alternatives to this technology. With the advent of television an alternative presented itself, but it was used in a limited manner because there was no need to interrupt the traditional technology. There are bold endeavors such as the Open University of the UK which in 2008 – 9 enrolled nearly 200,000 students, and the Indira Gandhi National University of India (IGNOU) which had nearly 4 million students in 2012; these remained on the periphery of the industry like the distance instruction of the land grant universities in the USA. These are the exceptions, and often considered of inferior value within the established narrative of global education, which is still committed to the classroom, and in the USA, the residential college. An interruption has arrived and the ongoing attempt to again cast the story in familiar terms rejects an opportunity to rewrite and rebrand the technology of teaching.

The first step in the rethinking the technology is to be able to abandon the current adjectives. Online (or remote, distance, etc.) teaching has a specific definition and set of practices that have been carefully nurtured by the specialized institutions such as the Open University, IGNOU and others who have set down the best practices for the process. It is inconceivable that all education institutions suddenly became online in a matter of one week. That is absurd; to call it online teaching does disservice to those who have honed the skills and own the technology. Further, creating an online learning environment requires a certain pre-disposition on the part of the people who creates the environment and the people who populate the environment. Perhaps most vitally, the online experience is embraced by choice by all who populate that learning space. The virus did not offer choice – everyone just had to react. In that reactive mode teachers and students actually drew upon a smorgasbord of tools which now offer a set of lessons and presents an opportunity to reconsider the technology of teaching.

It is now worth considering the creation of a Multi-Mode Learning Environment (MMLE) using the technologies that offer the maximum impact to the largest number of users. The MMLE would be made up of many different tools to offer an equitable and enriching learning environment and experience. The adoption of the following simple technologies and strategies can make MMLE a successful experience:

1. Messaging tools that require minimal data and can be easily used on a cell phone. This strategy acknowledges that all students and teachers are not in a privileged situation with ubiquitous access to advanced digital devices and flawless speedy network access. 

2. Students should be reassured that the instructor is accessible. Access is no longer just during the preset times like office hours and study halls, but when the student needs the support using a technology spectrum from real time video meetings to phone conversations.

3. Students should be able to access pre-recorded instructional modules through multiple access points where each module does not exceed certain file size. Students may not have the technological systems to download an hour-long pre-recorded video but may need it to be broken down in smaller pieces both for easier interpretation and for easier downloading.

4. Pre-recorded instructional modules should go beyond the “talking head” and incorporate dynamic tools.

5. Face to face technology should be used when it is needed for specific instruction (laboratories, dance studios, art classes, etc.), and as a tool for fostering the learning environment by deploying it in multiple spaces – from the playgrounds of elementary schools to the dormitories of the university and not privileging the classroom face to face contact.

In this model each of the five elements are equally important and the MMLE is built in the delicate balance of these technologies. Eventually, in the that balance it is possible to reduce the primacy of the classroom but retain and reimagine, in the fifth point above, the centrality of the college or the school campus in creating the learning environment.

This article was written by Ananda Mitra from Forbes and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.