The 2020 pandemic has caused a massive shift of academic technology use by students and instructors where both groups are relying on technology more than ever before to do their every day schoolwork.
“If anything, the pandemic just highlighted the need for everyone else to become more technologically aware” said Mr. Franco, a physics and programming language teacher at John Glenn High School. “I’ve actively looked for technology to incorporate, even before there was a need because of the pandemic.”
Technology use in the classroom setting for Mr. Franco’s students preceding the pandemic involved the use of Schoology, an academic platform where students can receive class updates and submit their work, and CodeHS which is an online platform for learning how to code in several different programming languages.
When the pandemic lockdowns initiated, Mr. Franco’s form of remote learning was similar to his in-person lectures considering he and his students had already been using technology in their academics. “Fortunately for me, the transition to the pandemic was seamless because I used Schoology. My students knew what to do, how to do it, and where to go.”
Like most teachers during the pandemic, Mr. Franco relied on web conferencing services like Zoom to replace in-person instruction. He relied on Zoom to work as a collaborative tool and not just a service to host meetings because he wanted to keep his students engaged with learning the course material as close to what one would expect from in-person lectures.
“The breakout rooms were really helpful,” he said. “It simulated a class environment, but virtually.”
In addition with using Zoom to its full potential, Mr. Franco opted for using a note-taking app called Notability where he shared his screen on Zoom to show his step-by-step handwritten process of how to solve mathematical problems. He says students must see how a problem is solved in real-time and that a PowerPoint lecture is insufficient in that learning process.
Diego, a student in Mr. Franco’s programming class, has become accustomed to the reliance of technology in his coding class that he wishes other teachers would follow suit in using more technology in the classroom. He finds typed assignments to be much more efficient, and it helps keep his work look organized compared to his “messy” handwriting.
Fortunately for coding students like Diego during the time of the lockdowns, CodeHS adapted their platform to include a new
feature that allowed students to collaboratively work together on a coding assignment. Students could now aid each other on their work, and it replaced the process of students individually looking at each other’s screens for comparing lines of code.
Although Mr. Franco had been avidly using technology throughout his courses which made the transition to the pandemic easier for him, there were plenty of other teachers who did have to make a considerable transition into using more technology to accommodate for remote learning.
“During that time, it forced me to utilize my time better in a way that maximizes student and academic potential,” says Ms. Nguyen, a biological sciences teacher at John Glenn High School. “I ended up scanning everything in digital form.”
Ms. Nguyen had been using a mix of online services and physical paperwork in her classroom prior to the pandemic, but the pandemic had still led her to using more technology to keep up with student learning potential. She too used Zoom during the lockdown and thought it made teaching feel more dynamic as if the students were having one-to-one conversations.
Her reliance of using Schoology as the central gateway for schoolwork had helped her students “build autonomy” and learn to manage their time for doing assignments. “It’s a lot of independent work, but it does build some terms of academic college skills because it’s a lot of autonomy” she said.
Along with remote learning, Ms. Nguyen needed to ensure that she would properly prepare her AP Biology students to be ready for their College Board exam. She had her students use Flipgrid, a group-based video sharing app, for them to “reinforce concepts” to illustrate their understanding of the material.
Along with Flipgrid, Schoology, and Zoom, Ms. Nguyen had utilized seven other apps and services because “it engages them in that (learning) process” and her students enjoyed them.
Felix is a student in Ms. Nguyen’s biology class, and finds online instruction to be easier for her than in-person learning. “Personally, I would be better on Zoom because my time management was better.” She also enjoys that some teachers retained the same online services used during the lockdown and are actively using them alongside in-person class instruction.
Through Ms. Nguyen’s adaptive transition of using more technology to accommodate for remote learning experiences, her 2021 AP Biology class had the highest passing rate compared to previous years. She says that “considerations and situations” of that time were in their favor to have a higher passing rate.
Now that in-person instruction has resumed for the teachers at John Glenn High School, teachers are left with a choice of either resorting back to their style of teaching prior the pandemic, or keeping an aspect of lecturing that they acquired from remote learning.
In the cases of Mr. Franco and Ms. Nguyen, both have decided to keep some of their remote learning styles with both agreeing that technology provides benefits to students and instructors in their daily academic workflow.
Mr. Franco finds technological innovations to be beneficial for those in an academic setting because of how he maximizes technology in any way that would make student potential at its best and most convenient for them. “Not to abuse it, but not to rely on it, but if it helps, then definitely, let's use it” he says.
Similarly, Ms. Nguyen finds technology to “enhance the learning aspect” of student workflow, and thinks it is beneficial in that regard. She finds technology to be very seamless at times, and that its seamlessness is what makes her students aware that their classroom responsibilities revolve around time management.
In retrospect to remote lecturing, Mr. Franco says he is glad to hear that a lot more teachers are more willing to using technology in their classroom environment.
“So I think a lot of my colleagues that weren't using technology are now more open to using it and are less afraid now because they were forced to. And so I think that's great. As far as me, of how big of a change (it is), I think it's just more of an appreciation.”
As Mr. Franco described, Ms. Nguyen is one of those teachers who consider using more technology as part of their in-person lecturing.
“I would pretty much continue what I did during the past year when we were not in in-person learning because the dynamics of the classroom was enhanced by me using various technology platforms” said Ms. Nguyen.
Conclusively, it can be said that the 2020 pandemic prompted teachers to take initiative of bringing the classroom setting directly to the homes of students through extensive technology use, and the subsequent return to in-person instruction is met by students and teachers alike learning that technology can indeed be beneficial to their academics.
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