Prior to the pandemic, 科技在课堂上的使用因学生的年龄而异. Elementary students had the least experience using technology. Most had some basic interaction — whether it was through Epic, a digital reading platform, or iReady, an online math curriculum that provides differentiated instruction.
“There was not a lot of technology being used pre-pandemic. Most of the student learning was very handson,” says Kelly Thorn ’17, who teaches kindergarten in Montgomery County, Maryland. “My students used a computer lab once a week for 45 minutes, 但他们对技术太不熟悉了，以至于花了大部分的课堂时间来让他们登录.”
Mary Herman ’15 Mostik’s third graders in the Lewisburg Area School District, Pennsylvania, were also fairly unfamiliar with the technology the pandemic forced them to use.
“在大流行之前，学生们学习了键盘技能和如何在笔记本电脑上打字，”莫斯提克说. 她还使用各种应用程序和程序来教授数学、阅读、科学和词汇.
But the pandemic brought new challenges. 而年龄较大的学生可能有更长的注意力持续时间坐在屏幕前, many of Thorn’s kindergarteners did not.
索恩回忆道:“教他们如何通过屏幕阅读和写作是非常具有挑战性的. “Some would walk away from their computer, 在电脑上玩其他游戏，或者做一些完全无关紧要的事情，我在自己家里也无能为力!” she says.
Though this massive shift to remote learning was frustrating, 不得不向网络过渡的结果是，许多教师提高了他们在教育技术方面的能力. According to a survey from the EdWeek Research Center, 87%的受访教师表示，由于疫情，他们的教育技术技能得到了提高.
这些发现与本文联系的浩博体育app校友的观点相呼应——尽管这种信心在很大程度上是通过反复试验得出的. While some school districts hosted trainings for their faculty, 许多教师通过搜索网络研讨会，把自己的时间花在提高自己的技术技能上, tutorial videos or peers.
莫斯提克说:“我从同事那里学到了我所知道的大部分技术知识. “我和经验丰富、富有创新精神的老师一起工作，他们发现了技术的惊人用途，并愿意分享.”
John Bickhart ’01 was appointed director of curriculum at Danville Area School District, Pennsylvania, a few months after the pandemic hit. Making the transition from the district’s elementary principal, 他和信息技术工作人员动员起来，在2020-21学年开学之前为教师提供支持.
“我们创建了一个完整的培训计划，可以在线访问，并根据教师的知识水平进行调整,” Bickhart explains. “我们设立了四名技术教练——每栋楼一名——以及一名教学教练. When we returned to school, 99 times out of 100 our teachers taught from the classroom, even if we had to take some virtual days, because we had set them up with support.”
向在线学习的转变也揭示了美国社会和教育中的数字鸿沟——导致教育交付方式的公平问题. This was a particular problem in rural school districts, where highspeed internet service is spotty, expensive or nonexistent.
Jason Weller ’99 他在宾夕法尼亚州完全是农村地区的莱恩山学区教八年级科学. “我们的许多学生在家里没有可靠的互联网，甚至没有电脑,” Weller says. “如果有兄弟姐妹需要同时上网，那些网络还算可靠的家庭就会面临问题.”
萨斯奎哈纳附近的一些地区为家中没有足够互联网服务的学生提供了热点——一种无线接入点. One was Mifflinburg Area, where Rosaria Clemens ’14 teaches first grade.
“We also recorded ourselves so students could watch lessons later,” she says.
For Mostik, 更大的公平问题是，一些学生得到或没有得到多少支持.
莫斯提克说:“许多有工作的父母无法帮助孩子登录Zoom. “许多学生错过了Zoom的课程，或者没有完成校外布置的作业. 有些孩子在日托所或家人家里，同样的并发症也经常出现.”
虽然大多数教师声称，由于疫情期间使用的增加，他们对教育技术的看法有所改善, administrators reported a rosier outlook than teachers. In the survey conducted by EdWeek, 只有6%的地区领导人表示，他们在冠状病毒关闭期间的经历导致他们对教育技术的看法更加负面, compared to 21% of teachers.
Madison Rice ’21, who didn’t begin her teaching career until after the pandemic’s start, 在她位于Selinsgrove学区的幼儿园教室里，她能看出严重依赖科技教学的利弊吗.
The benefits, Rice says, are that students learn to work independently; they engage easily with game-based instruction; platforms can differentiate instruction based on the academic level of the student; and many have data linkages that offer snapshots of a student’s areas of strength and weakness.
“However, some students do not benefit from the learning style of technology. Each student learns differently, 如果动手教学对他们更好，那么技术部分可能会让他们挣扎,” she says.
For elementary-aged students who are still perfecting their fine-motor skills, teachers have found that those skills have been slower to take hold.
“Since technology is heavily incorporated into children’s lives nowadays, they struggle with simple tasks, such as holding a pencil and cutting with scissors,” Clemens says. “有时候科技会阻碍孩子发展他们所需的基本技能.”
Though it may have been a steep climb, 对教师技术要求的提高似乎会持续下去——这在一定程度上是一件好事, Clemens says.
“科技可以为学生提供一系列学习机会，”她说. “Schools in general have become more flexible. I think we will have more options on how to provide students instruction.”
Bickhart, now superintendent of the Milton Area School District, Pennsylvania, says his district is taking steps to establish its own cyber academy, 他相信，由于疫情期间建立的技术基础，许多地区将会这样做. 他估计，此举将为学区节省大量纳税人的钱，否则学区有义务将这些钱支付给就读于非学区网络学校的学生.
Assisting with the cyber academy creation is the district’s use of Canvas, a system that supports online learning and teaching. More commonly used by colleges and universities than school districts, it allows teachers to deliver course content and post grades, information and assignments online. It is also being used by the district to build its library of online courses.
“我认为我们正处于这一领域的前沿，我认为你将看到高中能够为学生提供许多异步选择,” he says. “It benefits the students enrolled in cyber programs as well as all students.”
The pandemic proved something else to society that most teachers already know.
“大流行强调了面对面教学以及让学生和老师一起上课的重要性,” Weller says. “尽管我们的技术让我们走到一起，让我们获得无限的信息, there is no substitute for a teacher being with their students.”
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