Enriching Education: The Changing Face of Education

 With the country-wide COVID-19 shut downs coming to an end, there’s a lot of catching up to do. Schools and stores are opening back up, meaning less isolation and more social time.  Despite the fact that most students have been learning virtually for the past year, the pandemic has exposed issues that have never been thought of, let alone addressed. 

Patrick Quinn—a parenting expert at online learning platform Brainly, father of three school-age kids, and former teacher— has outlined five silver linings for the US education system that have come out of one of the most turbulent times for students and teachers alike. 

Here are five positive lasting effects and emerging trends in education that the pandemic acted as a catalyst for. 

1. Internet and online education brings equal opportunity to everyone, no matter your economic status.

Over the past year, the economic inequality impacting education has come to the forefront on people’s minds. This year, policymakers at both the state and federal levels are working together to make broadband ubiquitous. As we look ahead, positive change is on the horizon as we work as a society to address these types of challenges and problems.

2. Schools are prioritizing social-emotional learning.

The past year has been an extended period of collective trauma and isolation that may be during extremely formative years. We don’t know the lasting impacts it will have, but we do know that students need support from their teachers, teachers need support from their administrators, and so on. Social-emotional learning will rise to the forefront as key to academic recovery, for both students and teachers.

3. Educators are embracing formative learning and assessment models.

After the pandemic occurred in March of 2020, the last few months of the academic year were basically put on hold. Learning, testing, assessments, and more were cancelled which led us to a unique opportunity to rethink learning models. Over the past year, we saw a move toward competency-based, student-centered models that promote student engagement and agency in the learning process, while easing learning loss.

4. Parents and guardians are becoming more actively involved in their kids’ education.

Prior to the pandemic, kids had a way of talking themselves out of conversations surrounding their grades and education to their guardians. With students now learning from their homes, parents and guardians have no choice but to be more attune to what they’re learning and how they’re performing. Virtual learning led to an increase in parent’s using Brainly, and Brainly followed suit with the creation of Brainly for Parents. This platform allows parents to find deeper answers, for better understanding and explanations for their children. This allows students and parents to learn together. 

5. Students are learning better time management and taking control of their own educational outcomes.

Students are learning that it’s their responsibility (and theirs alone) to find the time and energy to finish their school assignments on time, without being micromanaged. Virtual learning requires teachers to trust their students, and it requires students to follow through on their own. While this may require a great amount of self discipline for anyone, let alone an adolescent child, many students are not only proving themselves capable but actually starting to thrive in this new self-directed learning environment. Thanks to Brainly’s peer to peer learning community that provides 24/7 help, along with the recent addition of new products to its suite of online learning tools like Brainly Tutor and the AI-powered Math Solver app, it’s now easier than ever for students to find all the help they need online so they can become self-directed learners. 

Though the pandemic made everything seemingly more challenging, it exposed many flaws that occur throughout our public education system on a daily basis. Many improvements can be made systemically, improvements that would not have been brought to the public’s attention without the pandemic occurring. The silver lining that is COVID-19 acted as a catalyst for positive change and has challenged Americans to care about the flaws in educational equity.