Those of us of a certain age will remember TV reruns of the
Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland musicals of the 1930s that got a lot of airtime in
the 1960s as fillers for local TV stations looking for inexpensive content to
air. The plot always seemed to revolve
around the need to show off the two young stars’ singing and dancing
talents. The heart of the movie revealed
itself when Rooney flashed that mischievous smile he had and said something
like, “My uncle has a barn we can use.
Let’s put on a show.” The thin
plot line then revolved around the rehearsals and performances that allowed
Rooney and Garland to shine.
With all the talk of education moving to online formats in
the current crisis, I’m reminded of those movies. Get a barn, a group of kids, and then let
them sing and dance their way into 90 minutes of entertaining frolic. In this current circumstance, though, it’s, “We
have online technology; let’s use it to teach.”
Well, just like a musical takes skills and an incredible amount of time
and hard work to produce in the real world, just having a technology isn’t
enough to replicate such a complex activity as learning and teaching. In truth, it takes a lot of preparation and
thought to move a course, at any level, into effective e-learning. I worry that we’ve lost that truth in the demands
to, “Let’s put on a show.”
In the past week, I’ve had a few discussions with teachers,
and I’ve seen many more have discussions online, as people charged with
educating children and adults are scrambling to figure out what to do as their
institutions make a sudden move to online instruction. That’s not to say that these teachers and
institutions haven’t used e-learning in the past. Most educators these days use a course
management system to store content. And many
have used e-learning tools like video conferencing to connect their students to
the wider world. But it’s like putting
on a musical. We may have seen a barn, we
may have seen a musical, and we may have some talent at signing and
dancing. But putting on a musical? That requires mastering special skills that cover
everything from stage design to directing to acting to marketing to a hundred
other important tasks.
K-12 schools and colleges that have been successful at
moving into e-learning have hired good instructional designers to work with
teachers. Good instructional designers
are amazing because they help educators rethink what they do to translate their
intended impact into an electronic format.
They teach a way of thinking – they offer much more than the tools of
e-learning. That’s because teaching via e-learning
is a learned skill that designers can help educators develop. There are actually benefits to e-learning and
there are ways that teachers can replicate the impacts they create in their
face-to-face classrooms. However,
teachers generally don’t develop those skills innately. They need support to develop the skills they
need.
A school or college that expects that its teachers will
succeed at translating what they do face to face into e-learning will quickly
discover the importance of supporting that translation. Unfortunately, there aren’t anywhere near the
number of instructional designers available for the sudden change that schools
and colleges are now undertaking. So
rather than looking like a polished MGM musical from the 30s, many of the
current efforts, I fear, will look more like a local community talent show: some highlights, but few stellar moments and even
more frustrations for teachers and learners.
What to do? For now,
there’s not much to be done. There are
some schools and colleges that have a robust instructional design department,
and they will provide the support that teachers need for the transition. But this current crisis can be a wake up for
educational leaders. For the 25 years
that I’ve been leading, teaching, researching, and developing e-learning, I’ve
seen the “Let’s put on a show” model as dominant in discussions of educators outside
of e-learning experts. Educational
leaders who hold the purse strings are satisfied to purchase the latest tools
in the expectation that the tools are what’s required. However, just like Judy and Mickey’s barn wouldn’t
work in the real world, there needs to be a concurrent effort in the future to
do more than just attempt a show. Schools
and colleges need to invest in a future that does more than puts a few
assignments into an electronic format and expects learning to occur. In addition to instructional designers,
schools and colleges need to invest in ongoing, job-embedded, quality
professional development and support for their teachers. This moment, as emergencies often do, offers
an opportunity to rethink how better to prepare for the future.
