How to turn challenges into opportunities for education transformation?
The recent coronavirus pandemic has profoundly disrupted education systems worldwide, shining the spotlight on significant gaps that have undermined the right to education for one in three children across the world. Neither teachers nor families were prepared to leapfrog into a remote learning and working situation. Adequate digital equipment, insufficient broadband access and poorly trained teachers were amongst a broader set of issues that impacted children’s right to an equitable, inclusive education. UNESCO[1] estimates that schooling was disrupted for around 70% of children worldwide, and around 40% were impacted by lack of physical exercise and access to nutrition.
A 2019 European Commission survey[2] had already underlined the total lack of preparedness for schools to integrate digital technology in the educational cursus, let alone move from in-class to remote learning from one day to the next. Data from the survey shows that on average in primary schools 18 pupils share a computer, with a slightly better average of 7 or 8 children per computer in secondary school. Sixty per cent of pupils are taught by teachers who have to cover their own costs to take up professional development opportunities, and 1 in 2 students consider that their parents don’t understand the online risks they encounter or how they use digital technology. The past several months of school closures and social lockdowns during have been a wake-up call for society on many levels, and in too many cases it is the wellbeing of children and the protection of their rights that have paid the price.
International institutions estimate that three out of four families were simply unprepared for the challenge. Although countries like the Netherlands[3], for example, rapidly invested huge budgets to ensure that every child was adequately equipped with digital tools to follow remote learning, broadband access remains an issue for many. Reports from countries such as Finland[4] and Germany[5] underline, too, the dearth of teachers able to adapt their pedagogical strategies to make learning more flexible, customized and meaningful, exciting rather than de-motivating their pupils and taking full advantage of the wealth of resources at their fingertips. Security, privacy and safety issues of digital platforms were also accentuated by the crisis. Many teachers turned to commercial platforms to conduct their lessons, without a full understanding of the risks and flaws, and lacking awareness and training for quality usage.
Given the strong likelihood that remote learning will continue for students of all ages during the months to come, at least part of the time, we can learn a lot by listening to the ideas and suggestions from students on how we can do better. After the initial shock of having to take charge of their own learning, certain young people embraced the opportunity to take charge of their own learning, attending one or two classes a day but otherwise studying at their own rhythm with more time to focus on their specific interests. This calls to mind an idea put forward by Ivan Illich[6] many decades ago, to create learning webs around student interests rather than restricting them to class learning based on age and estimated learning level. A study conducted in Germany[7] shows that around 20% of children chose to use documentaries and programmes from mediatheques and on TV as learning tools; less than 30% relied on school programmes.
Wikipedia and YouTube were apparently the most frequently used resources, which raises certain questions around credibility and suitability of information and underlines the need for educators to take a deeper look at making their online content more attractive and easily accessible. The study further shows that only 1 in 5 children consider that they learned with parental support and around 1 in 3 through instructions from their school. A majority adopted a peer learning approach, with almost 1 in 2 children citing brothers and sisters and/or friends as the people that learnt with most often. Yet how often does peer learning figure in the remote learning paradigms most frequently implemented by teachers? One big criticism from teen students is the lack of a single platform that brings together everything they need to be more focused and participate fully in remote class activity. They go to a different site per subject to find the texts they’re meant to study, another to see the timetable of their courses, other platforms again to access meetings or attend forums where they can exchange ideas with fellow students or participate in collaborative learning.
Education is intended to empower children to exploit their full potential as they progressively learn to participate actively in society as informed citizens and aware consumers. For this, children require the guidance and the tools that enable them to build a solid set of competences based on values, attitudes, skills and knowledge and critical understanding[8]. The current situation clearly illustrates that the importance of bringing together public, private and civic sectors in a multi-stakeholder approach to ensure that families are adequately equipped and informed, teachers prepared and digital tools develop within a concept of safety and privacy by design. Teachers need extensive, updated knowledge-building and training opportunities, and curricula and evaluation criteria that enable them to implement a mixed learning approach incorporating face-to-face, remote, independent, informal and flipped learning styles. It is up to industry not only to safeguard the tools and platforms young learners use, but also to support schools and families to fully understand the best use of which tools for which educational purposes. Every stakeholder involved in any way in the education, wellbeing and protection of the rights of our children have a responsibility to work hand in hand with educators, families and government to ensure that technology serves and can be shaped to build an online environment that prioritises rights and privacy over commercial-based interests.
If the online world is not to become a shallow supermarket of low-quality content where citizens lack the competences to sort true from fake and master technology rather than to be mastered by it, then thorough piloting of tools and ongoing research is essential. We have to continually evaluate the impact of digital technology on our lives and on new modes of learning. Children must also have a voice in the debate to define the way forward, building on the lessons learned during this first pandemic the 21st century world has faced. Children are key actors in the transformation that education must undergo to become student-centred, flexible, inclusive and innovative. They have the right to equal opportunities to become informed, responsible resilient citizens ready to play their part in shaping our future.
Janice Richardson is an international expert on digital literacy, children’s rights and their online wellbeing. She has extensively advised governments, institutions (Council of Europe, UNESCO, UNICEF, ITU…) and industry (Facebook, Google, Twitter, Huawei…) on digital education across the world. She is author/co-author of a dozen books, and founding member/coordinator of several networks on literacy-related topics including the European Commission’s 30-country Safer Internet network (Insafe) and ENABLE, a network to tackle bullying through social-emotional competency development. She is founder of Safer Internet Day (celebrated since 2004, now in more than 140 countries), and winner of a Facebook Digital Citizenship Grant (2012), a European Diversity Award (2013) for outstanding use of digital technology in education and a Telefono Azzurro Award for child protection (2017).
