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  • About
    • Mission and Goals
    • STEAM Position
    • Diversity in STEAM Education
    • History
    • Council
    • Institutions
    • Staff
  • Improve Practice
    • K-12 Effective Practices
    • K-12 Innovation Fellows
    • Out-of-school effective practices
    • STEAM Teacher & Administrator Professional Development
    • Rationale
  • Collaborate
    • Research Thought Leaders
    • Convene
  • Newsletter
  • Resources
    • Creative and Innovative Thinking Skills
    • Certified STEAM Lessons
    • Certified STEAM Rubrics
    • Peer-Reviewed Articles
    • Bibliography
    • Books for kids
  • Blog

Necessity as the Mother of Invention: Adapting Education for COVID

11/8/2020

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By Juliana Texley, Innovation Collaborative Board Member and former President, National Science Teachers Association

It often takes a major event to upset the status quo and for real change to occur. The U.S. Department of Education issued its first Star Schools grants to improve and evaluate online education in 2000. While the potential of online systems was clear twenty years ago, very little innovation occurred in the pedagogy until this year. In March 2020, schools across the nation were suddenly shut down and teachers had to adopt new methods almost overnight.
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Educators across the globe reached for skills and methods that they never thought they would need. Best practice couldn’t simply involve readings and worksheets or lectures via Zoom.  Innovation happened! For this issue of the Innovation newsletter, we surveyed to find suggestions and links for a program near you.

Talk Isn’t Cheap
At the most basic level, nurturing innovation online begins with communication skills. That original Department of Education study twenty years ago emphasized two important elements of online interactions—open collaboration and creativity. Those elements are being reintroduced today in the best programs.  One of the key ideas that teachers then and now recognize is summarized by Sharon O’Malley¹. Online discussions should be between students, not teachers and individual learners, she points out. What seems logical is, in truth, a tremendous challenge when a teacher moves from face-to-face to asynchronous online dialogue. Learning to “stop talking” online was one of the first changes teachers had to make as the transition occurred. 

Spatial Reasoning
A second key principle of good online learning also included in O’Malley’s review, the intersection of science and the arts, is often spatial reasoning and how it is a skill that is both innate and learned. The online environment can be just as effective in discovering, manipulating, and developing spatial reasoning skills. Deborah Kris² shows that very specific methods can be incorporated to decrease gender gaps as well. Incorporating spatial reasoning tests, games, and building experiences into standard online courses can bring them to a level that could not be achieved in any other way. Unfortunately, it is awkward to incorporate spatial learning, art, and graphical analysis in many traditional online learning platforms.  Therefore, the teacher may find it necessary to juggle not one but several learning management systems simultaneously. While these platforms may not be compatible, in the past several months teachers across multiple subject areas have demonstrated it is possible to deliver effective instruction through these strategies.  

Great Examples from the Arts and Physical Education
Students today find online arts a motivational dimension of their shared experience. But it is still rare to see these skills woven into the fabric of science and social studies courses online. This is partially true due to the limited imagination of the programmers who develop the platforms. They might remember education as it was when they were students themselves, but they haven’t necessarily considered sites and apps that can be adapted for blended learning. When teachers make the effort, innovation enriches the at-home experience. Here are just a few examples of innovative resources:
  • Choir practice is one of the activities that has been identified as high risk in the age of COVID (because of the deep breathing needed for a performance and aerosol droplet projection.) But everyone has seen those great online performances, comprised of singers in multiple locations. Tom Cook reviews some specific software that can be employed to create online choir performances at: https://blog.chorusconnection.com/virtual-learning-taking-your-choir-rehearsals-online. These experiences get rave reviews. Also see the National Association for Music Education for a great review of virtual resources: https://nafme.org/my-classroom/virtual-learning-resources-for-music-educators
  • Dance has moved online as well. Stefani Sassos reviews the online dance options at:  https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/fitness/g32686399/best-online-dance-classes/ 
  • The Educational Theatre Association has an extensive list of resources and strategies for creating virtual performances on its Theatre Educator Pro professional development site at https://learn.schooltheatre.org/creating-virtual-performances
  • Young Voices for the Planet, a non-profit that features award-winning films, has developed two online programs that blend video, science, social studies, and activism. The programs include 
    • Civic Engagement and Democracy, and
    • Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation.
  • Jason Education couples online STEM curriculum with journaling, literacy, encounters with role models, linked art experiences, and multilingual text. Many of the curricula feature entrepreneurial “Design and Pitch” challenges that encourage Shark Tank-like student interactions. They also offer competitions involving video production.
  • Jason Education also offers curricula in early childhood STEM which was developed in partnership with the Massachusetts Audubon Society, along with online professional development. These lessons include art, social studies, and other links illustrating early childhood best practices.
  • In the winter, 2020 Collaborative newsletter the real-time integrated arts and STEM program, SAM Academy, was described. Like hundreds of similar programs across the nation in the “summer of COVID”, SAM went virtual this summer. Take another look at the program at http://cvsamacademy.org/art-cohort/

Innovation isn’t just for our students. Congratulations to all the teachers and administrators who have become COVID innovators. It’s worth bearing in mind that most education leaders believe that once the virus is controlled, hybrid and virtual instruction will continue to serve as a viable instruction option. So, while all of us in education continue to face challenges, the innovation that is happening will serve us far into the future.  
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1. O’Malley, Sharon. (2017). Effective Teaching Online. https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/07/12/7-guidelines-effective-teaching-online
2. Kris, Deborah Farmer. (2015). Can Teaching Spatial Skills Help Bridge the STEM Gender Gap? https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/43802/can-teaching-spatial-skills-help-bridge-the-stem-gender-gap

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