In ‘normal times’ transformation is often slow, usually driven by technology. During the Second World War, which was far from normal, a number of radical developments in medicine, science and technology rapidly emerged. They had to. It was expedient, because lives were at stake.  In a time of crisis, we all try to cope in any way we can.

Today’s crisis is precisely one of those moments in history. There is a race to develop new methods of health care, vaccines, medicines and of course, new social rules and civic responsibility. Schools, colleges and universities are either locked down, or operating at a reduced capacity. Technology solutions are sought so that education can continue. These are often solutions that have previously been ignored, or worse – dismissed by many educators as undesirable, unfeasible.

Yes, technology often drives transformation, but a virus pandemic can transform things more quickly and pervasively. The educators who previously avoided technology solutions now have to hurriedly embrace these solutions to keep working. But some are doing so in ways that inadvertently perpetuate their prejudices about technology. Perhaps they still see it as a poor substitute, or a second rate method of teaching. Content is still king in their minds, and everything relies on their knowledge, and the ‘delivery‘ of learning. A new pedagogy is required, but perhaps they aren’t listening. A telling quote from Katheryn Skelton, Chief Transformation Office at Futurelearn, made the headlines on the BBC news site earlier today. She said:

“Educators need to take a step back and ask not ‘how can I replicate what I do in the classroom’, but ‘how can I redesign this learning experience to take advantage of a whole wealth of technology that can deliver a full learning experience – not just the delivery of information?'”

Transforming online learning experiences by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.