As the coronavirus pandemic takes root throughout America, schools and workplaces throughout Connecticut are coming under pressure to close their doors to prevent contagion. In ways scarcely anticipated mere months ago, the nature of learning and working will change — virtually overnight.
We are at a tipping point. There will be a “before” and “after” corona, and how our educational systems respond will define schools, education professionals and digital platforms that support them.
This new “post-corona” reality will be unsettling, but it also provides an opportunity that has long been needed both in the classroom and the workplace. Remote working and online collaboration are functions whose necessity can only grow in our increasingly connected world; coronavirus may ultimately boost engagement to make it happen more quickly.
It’s long overdue. Sixty percent of employers report that new hires lack key skills, like problem solving and critical thinking. And the job market is already evolving. The gig economy now comprises 60 million Americans, with the largest growth among the young. Almost half — 47 percent — of millennials worked side jobs or as freelancers last year, according to Upwork and the Freelancers Union. Many of them will be right here in Connecticut.
While the world is rapidly adapting to this new reality, it’s now time for our schools to catch up. Unfortunately, our schools did not have a digital backup plan to maneuver through such a crisis as the coronavirus, with many teachers saying they are “learning as we go” — this, despite having the technology available even in our high schools. Many schools are training their teachers for online curriculum delivery as we speak. Meanwhile, parents are having to take work time to guide their children through lessons. Those that succeed will see that, like employers, this could be a part of this bright, new future and bridge the gap that they sorely need, even in low-income areas of our state.
From our own experience with online collaboration from Hartford to Stamford, the prospects are promising. Over the last three years, for example, we’ve rolled out an after-school business academy for high school girls that focuses on marketing, product development and other MBA-style concepts. The instruction is presented live and online, with software that allows students to view and interact with each other as well as the instructor, mimicking a classroom experience. The program’s graduates have succeeded in practical ways: Some have earned college scholarships, and most have reported sharply greater confidence in their leadership abilities.
School districts are embracing the online environment using similar methods that 20 years ago would have seemed difficult to undertake. Live piano instruction and other forms of after-school tutoring are accessible online.
The convenience of the online experience can make the difference between a pupil learning a new skill or just lying around his bedroom mastering video games. And the virtual classroom opens doors to youths that may have been closed by physical disabilities — the disabled student can now engage with peers and, in some cases, actually feel just like every other kid. And let’s keep in mind that this is the generation that has come to expect it. They began tapping out the ABCs on their iPhone before they learned to write.
Elsewhere, important gatherings by educational leaders and community officials — a board meeting or an annual budget program — don’t have to be canceled by a health crisis. With minimal effort, managers can run live polls of their constituents on specific topics and get real-time results.
In the short term, scientists are hopeful that the damage of the coronavirus will run its course. Schools and workplaces will reopen, and life will recover a semblance of normality. There may be no better time than now to take the plunge and risk trying new networked approaches to the business of learning.
Jennifer Openshaw is CEO of the nonprofit Girls With Impact, http://www.girlswithimpact.org/, a modern business and innovation academy for young women.