If the past few months have shown anything, it’s the vital importance of schools having a good and well-used e-learning infrastructure.

All teachers will know what they think of their school’s provision in this.

For myself, at Al Salam Community School, Dubai, we have been fortunate to weather the storm of physical disruption to provision thanks to our embedding of Google for Education tools that we have turned to in order to maintain the necessary teaching to our students.

Through this, it was certainly hard not to reflect on the journey we have been on to reach a place where technology could, if already correctly established, enable us to provide so much learning at short notice.

Edtech and the rise of e-learning

E-learning has developed in so many ways from when I first became a teacher.

I recall hand-writing my PGCE application in 2001 and, within a year, towards the end of my PGCE at the University of Cambridge, I was using “conditional formatting” to develop self-assessment tools on Excel spreadsheets. 

I also recall the cynicism that I experienced when embarking on tech journeys as a non-ICT teacher, and being labelled a “geek” or a “nerd” - granted I do enjoy spreadsheets - for showing interest in ICT. 

So much so that becoming a Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor meant I was the first choice for staff cover for ICT lessons, rather than it being seen as an opportunity to support ICT across the curriculum. 

Now there is social cachet in being seen as an early adopter of all things “tech”, whether this was the iPad back in 2010 or being among the very first to sign up for a Future Learn MOOC back in September 2013 (only I’m ashamed to admit that I have enrolled on a dozen courses with only one completed to date…)

What lessons can we learn?

Now, of course, teachers and schools that were early adopters and evolved their thinking and bought wisely are far better prepared for the new world that may await.

It’s always been this way, with the digital divide emerging as soon as some schools had the foresight to invest in tools and ideas such as emailing assignments, having a back-up of resources, and innovative use of learning time in the classroom via flexible content uploads. 

Such divides were as much within schools and even within departments as between schools - much the same is true now.  

Some teachers innovate and use technology to complement learning, some buy it and don’t know what to do with it, letting it gather dust - literally or digitally speaking.

Therefore, the need to address the training of the “laggards”, as the author Simon Sinek would say, is essential to ensure that the whole school community progresses into the future. And this extends not just to teachers and pupils but parents, too.

At Al Salam Community School, we hold parent workshops on downloading the Google Classroom App and guiding parents on how to use the app to see feedback from teachers and understand the assignments due from their children. It all makes a big difference.

Even here, though, schools cannot rest on their laurels.

Will content become king?

In the past decade, the essentially inseparable use of technology at home and work in an era of “always on(line)” with wi-fi, the tablet/smartphone, led by the tech giants of Apple and Google, has ensured that technology use is almost universal in developed economies. 

The challenge then for schools is to ensure that the communications and content they produce can fit seamlessly with the technology being used by the stakeholders.

What’s more, as educational delivery in schools adapts to have more blended learning as the new “norm”, schools must ensure the “value add” they can provide remains fundamental to children’s learning.  

Otherwise, they risk “content becoming king” and the role of teachers fading away.

After all, if content can be accessed at the convenience of the learner rather than the requirement to be in class at the teacher’s behest, what does that mean for the future of education?

A heady question but one that does not need answering just yet - but one day it might.

The next era of transformation

Many future-gazing writers speak about the skills of the future - problem-solving, collaboration, creative thinking - but until they make up a formal assessment or validation of those skills, I do feel these will be a luxury for the few rather than the essentials for the most.

The savvy schools will be those that consider this issue now, recognise that this will change and think accordingly - just as those that embraced technology earlier were better placed for this pandemic.

While the final exams continue to require handwritten responses and test content - even though scripts are scanned for examiners to mark - the shift to online assessments may become more common.

Perhaps online multiple-choice questions supported with practical assessments - very much like medical schools’ objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) - ought to be considered with a “viva voce” or actually a “virtual voce” (ie, a video upload of students explaining their knowledge or applying their skills could very easily replace the need for written formal exams, which often favour those who have rehearsed the past papers and mark schemes).

What is certain is that the textbook, teacher and the physical classroom model will no longer be the “norm”. 

Maybe the biggest question over all of this is: if the input is no longer “traditional”, then why should the output be?

Kausor Amin-Ali is principal of Al Salam Community School, Dubai. He is also a Google for Education Certified Trainer