From remote learning to the "new" normal, educators learn the benefits of technology
KEARNEY, Neb. — Two years ago, students and teachers around the world had to adapt to learning and teaching online. On Saturday the University of Nebraska at Kearney hosted a webinar talking about the challenges and opportunities remote learning gave to teachers.
Since 2016, UNK has hosted a meeting focused on technology and education. This year's UNK's annual Tech EDGE Spring Conference focused on the online teaching experience and how it could better benefit face-to-face learning.
Assistant Professor of Education Dr. Rebecca Nelson said teachers need to identify the ways education is changing with technology.
“As technology is kind of taking a hold, and as we move courses online, we have to adapt to this new environment."
“We are just coming out this pandemic, and many school districts in the state of Nebraska spent a significant amount of time in online learning environments," said Dean of the UNK College of Education Mark Reid.
This year's conference invited Brad McLain as the keynote speaker, he is a social scientist who serves as Director of Corporate Research at the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), he is also the executive director for the Center for STEM Learning at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
McLain said there are some hidden benefits to online learning, but it could take some work to realize them.
“Since a lot of learning has gone online, especially last year, and to a great extend this year, we have access, in some schools to Google classroom, or other similar software solutions that allow the teachers to provide parents with information and windows on their children’s learning, that we haven't had access to or didn’t pat attention before," McLain said.
“Some people who didn’t have their experience with those type of online platforms, gained that experience," Reid said. "We also see things like even the common, every day platform that we all use, of Zoom become more user friendly, and gave us more ways to use it."
The conference included 11 sessions covering a variety of digital learning and teaching topics, instructional strategies, visual technologies, artificial intelligence, research on equity and inclusion and more.
The pandemic brought many challenges for teachers not only technology related. As McLain shared in the conference, teachers reported experiencing anxiety and depression, as well as increased used of substances to cope with stress since the start of the pandemic.
Data collected via Qualtrics online survey shows that 37% of teachers met critical criteria for possible anxiety disorder.
But as things change, and go back to normal, McLain said it’s important to keep having these conversations, teaching educators the benefits of technology, and how to cope with change.
“What we have before us is a great need, and a great opportunity to change the way we think about student learning and teaching, and it has to happen fairly quickly."
McLain said this has gone from a pandemic to an endemic, meaning the pandemic is not going anywhere and teaching methods will keep changing for teachers to adapt.
“We have to adapt, we have to change, we have to flexible," Dr. Nelson said. "We have to continue these conversations to see where we are now and where are we heading, where is education going in the future?"
The UNK Tech Edge Conference changed to an online format this year because around 80% of participants, were in other states and countries, taking the event to the Zoom platform these educators now know very well.
