The pandemic disrupted the development of over 55 million U.S. school children under the age of 18. In many cases, the switch to remote education hasn’t been a smooth one–teachers might have been briefed on the correct use of online tools, but have struggled to keep engagement levels high in the digital classroom.
Perhaps even more urgently, Covid-19 has widened the already-existing education gap that puts low-income students at a disadvantage compared to their better-off peers. The reasons include ineffective educators, lack of internet access and study resources like tutor accessibility, and difficult family situations.
According to McKinsey, students are at risk for significant, long-term learning loss – which will be even greater for low-income, black, and Hispanic students. Existing achievement gaps could be exacerbated by 15-20 percent.
Yet, today’s challenges can be solved by democratizing access to learning resources to help all students improve their performance and drive interest even in remote education. Here’s how.
Inclusive education for all
Particularly in public schools, it is becoming obvious that educators often lack the resources they need to provide maximum value to their students. To some extent, distance learning today merely covers the basics, with the main differentiator of student success being the resources and ability to advance self-guided learning. This is a worrying reality for a number of reasons: For example, with household income dropping significantly for the lowest-earning households during the pandemic, tutoring or accessing a functional computer get further out of reach.
In terms of accessibility, educational technology has the potential to level the playing field for all students. For a low price–or for free on platforms that offer scholarships–they can access content across subjects and catch up with learning wherever and whenever they need to. As the obstacles get removed, students are empowered to be more accountable for their own learning.
Asynchronous learning as the cornerstone
Remote education can have many blind spots that are hard to uncover. For example, it’s possible that students don’t have the resources or can’t access the instructions to carry out their self-study assignments. Even though there might be doubts or questions, the impersonal nature of tools like Zoom can make it difficult for students to ask for clarification or get the necessary one-on-one time with their educator.
With students absorbing knowledge in different ways, the synchronous interaction with teachers and peers can bring discrepancies. Here, modern educational platforms can step in to provide asynchronous classes that students can progress with at their own pace. By revisiting a topic for revision or clarification, they can quickly catch up with what they missed in the class and fill all the gaps effortlessly. Especially when organized in digestible chunks of knowledge, students can develop a more independent, self-driven approach to learning.
Engagement and skill-focused progress
Without a doubt, student engagement has suffered in the past months. Because low-income students can’t always afford to pay for workshops, online conferences, private tutoring, or diverse resources, they find themselves without the extra boost they often need.
Many educational platforms have been designed to engage the current “TikTok generation” with bite-sized chunks of knowledge on different topics, encouraging students not only to study the curriculum but also to explore other topics of their interest. With practical lessons and accessible video tutoring, these solutions can complement at-school education and empower students to advance their learning in a way traditional education couldn’t.
With motivation decreasing, it’s also worth noting that the pandemic has seen a tendency toward cheating, and facilitators of remote education are still figuring out the right way to approach it. While some educational platforms are focused on providing simple answers, students should be directed toward those that guide them toward the solution through an engaging, step-by-step learning process that results in acquired knowledge, not just finding an easy way out.
In 2021, there are different boxes that remote education needs to check. It should be informative, accessible, fair, and engaging. Edtech can help with all these–especially when working to support students in a safe environment to help them reach their full learning potential.
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