Life Changes – Kick Myself or Pat myself on the Back?

Foresight of the Educational Changes Needed- Should I Kick Myself or Pat myself on the back?

As I sat here as a retired educator reading the postings on Facebook about how school systems were preparing to open or not open in Fall 2020 during the COVID19 pandemic, I didn’t know whether to kick myself or pat myself on the back.

You see, back in 2006, and technically even earlier, I foresaw this paradigm shift coming for schools, and knew where the solutions lie. Getting to that time period and my frustrations in trying to convince school districts about their future needs takes some explanation.

Back in 2002, I was in the middle of working on my doctorate in the Computer Science Department at Nova Southeastern University. My career teaching 4th and 5th graders in a tiny school in Dublin, MD how to do global projects on a 1200 baud phone line with classes in Denmark, South Africa, and the Eastern Shore of Md, had morphed to aiding professors at UMBC to put their courses online. My career then further stretched to working with teachers in Colorado to not only use technology but to also teach using online learning. As part of my job at Colorado State University, I created online courses for teachers, and as a mentor also worked with teachers that were teaching K-12 students online using virtual school materials. I was able to mentor those teachers in adapting their online curriculum to meet the needs of actual students in their homes. I felt like I learned more from those teachers than they learned from me. The experience was mind-bending for me, and I later went on to teach in 2 Virtual Schools while I was also teaching face to face kids in the Middle School classroom at my old district in 2007 through 2009. I wrote about this experience in my blog entry in 2011 – From Both Sides Now.

Meantime, in 2006, as I was teaching From Both Sides, I also was working on my dissertation and trying to settle on a topic that a professor would approve. I had focused my research on online learning, pros and cons, how-tos, and thus drew some conclusions on my website @LB Consultants – Benefits & Drawbacks. That topic (and my professor) got dropped for my dissertation because my professor couldn’t see my vision as I saw it. I went on later to adapt my dissertation topic with another professor. This topic and professor involved adapting Web 2.0 tools for use in the face to face classroom. The dissertation was completed in 2012. At that time, I was still teaching face to face in a middle school classroom, and trying to convince the higher ups in that district that online learning was a tool of the future. To be able to understand my vision, I even mentioned what would happen if for some reason all schools had to shut down, wouldn’t it be nice if we had online resources like I had in my virtual schools, for all kids to utilize? Of course, their response was, “That’s never going to happen!” My point at that time was, that laptops and online tools were a possibility in the future. However, that district didn’t have technology budget to even think of challenges such as that.

So sitting here during the 2020 pandemic with nothing to do, and watching the news about school systems shutting down, and how many districts had to adapt to sending laptops home with their kids for virtual learning, I was pondering that question – Should I Kick Myself Or Pat Myself on the Back? My vision was correct, but my ability to get results had failed. Although I did my part and tried extremely hard to get the tools into kid’s and teacher’s hands, were my efforts just the seeds planted in the minds of the higher ups? Were those seeds enough that they grew in the intervening years in the minds of those in charge, to be able to meet the challenges during the pandemic?

As I watched, on Facebook, as a retiree through the eyes of my fellow educators who were still teaching, I did see that my district eventually adapted the tools I had pushed as well as other changes to be able to survive the pandemic. They’ve also adapted and now have virtual schools in that district that they fought having before all this. So rather than kicking myself, I think I’ll just dust the dirt off my back from planting those seeds and relax in my retirement!