Digital lessons from the class of COVID-19

There is a difference between being forced to change and adopting long-term change. Overnight, COVID-19 forced students from in-class learning to at-home lessons.

 As students moved to device-based learning, subsequent access to these devices increased, while teaching and administrative staff responded admirably to the call of increasing digital competency.

 This change was necessitated by a pandemic, but it also quickly proved that schools can adapt to and embrace long-term digital change at an incredible pace.

 Digitally transforming schools

Instead of a gradual introduction of digital teaching, schools showing themselves that digital transformation can work means we can now imagine new approaches of lesson delivery and analysing student progress.

 The EY Megatrends 2020 report identifies that while there are side effects of online learning, including a lack of trust, there are ’huge benefits for users’ that come from ’instant access to vast amounts of information and computing power.’ Convenience, connectivity and mobility are listed as enablers of positive change for thinking and behaviour.

 The EY Megatrends report was compiled with leaders in mind, charting future growth via a framework and acting as a guide through unprecedented change.

 Applied to education, a mix of digital reform and on-site lessons offer the best of both worlds, as is noted in the EY A class of their own report: the perks of social interaction in a communal setting, combined with the personalised benefit of tailored learning. Digital implementation is not intended as a replacement for but a complement to the personal connection between teacher and student.

 Instead of replacing, digital implementation can actually bolster that connection. Support for challenging parts of the curriculum – determined by the analytics of individual students – can be coupled with a healthy stretching of student capacities via intensive teacher interaction for desired outcomes.

 Digital learning technologies and the subsequent data insights provide an opportunity to address inequity in learning across the country. Data-driven systems have been used for over a decade now in early adopting schools to improve outcomes.

 And the EY A class of their own report acknowledges that the current reactive approach to remote learning has proven the viability of important and lasting changes to an education system that has traditionally seen change as difficult.

 Digital learning in action

Bespoke learner analytics technology allows educators to tailor content and teaching methods, alongside a push towards real-time feedback, and a shift to an education world where teaching is adapted to students’ individual needs.

 The EY A class of their own report highlights that educators will soon be able to identify a student’s aptitude, subject interests and willingness to learn, then tailor an individual approach for them. With proper implementation, digital learning also reduces teacher administration loads and helps to identify exemplary teaching performance which, in turn, allows for better delivery of learning outcomes. In addition, Digital learning can help address gaps in access to high-quality learning.

 Both EY reports acknowledge the industrial revolution-era origins of our current K-12 school system. This style of ’batch processed’ teaching is standardised around the logic of a profession or industrial job, with little emphasis on career changes.

 The challenge, as highlighted in the EY Megatrends report, is that change is slow, and that slowness of change will result in those educational institutions that are resistant to change being ‘increasingly misaligned with the future of work.’ According to the report, the solution is to treat education as a truly lifelong pursuit, which is relevant given the 250% increase in articles about lifelong learning between 2016 and 2019.

 Achieving digital learning outcomes

The EY A class of their own report also notes Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) research that emphasises the link between better education and economic uplift. For Australia, the OECD research estimates that raising student learning outcomes to be in line with the highest international standards would lead to long-run GDP growth of 0.35 percentage points.

 What is good for Australia’s students is also good for the rest of the country.

 To take advantage of this digital opportunity, it needs to be a nationwide, cross-sector push that is driven by all sectors: State, Catholic and independent. But schools and departments cannot achieve this alone.

 The willingness to change must come from a united front across these sectors. Challenging the status quo takes courage, commitment and collaboration. But there is a real opportunity now to take advantage of a genuine thrust towards making change happen sooner rather than later.

 EY Megatrends expose leaders to trends and forces far outside their usual scope of analysis, reducing the risk of missing the next ‘big thing’. Join the conversation. #BetterWorkingWorld.

 The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organisation or its member firms.