“2020 saw some incredible challenges for our communities.” This being a statement of fact should lead to some questions. What have we learned? What do we need to do differently? What challenges to we need to recognise and address in order to move forward?

It is evident that we do indeed have champions of change in our community, as change has been dramatic and swift. We have needed champion leaders, those determined to guide us through the pandemic, champion medical and health workers who have battled and worked to conquer the virus, and we have also needed champions in our education systems. Teachers, students and parents have been the quiet but vitally important champions in education.

The closure of schools, partial attendance of students, staggered start and finish times and the rapid pace of change, have all led to enormous stress levels in the community. These new rules were introduced into our lives very quickly. There was little time to prepare for the consequences of the pandemic and this is no more evident than in education. Traditionally in education, change has always aimed to be structured, timed and managed as new changes are introduced into the system.

We collect data, measure, consult and then in stages roll out our new ideas, initiatives and programs. Everything is measured, planned and evaluated, and then adjustments made with specific timelines and outcomes to be reached. COVID 19 saw this all completely turned upside down. Teachers and students both needed to modify, transform and quickly adapt to the new delivery of remote learning, while parents had to play a far bigger role in supporting their children as they were ‘schooled’ from home. Parents often needed to become a participant in their children’s learning, while adapting to their own work schedules as they were required to work from home.

The inevitable rise of e-learning accelerated with dramatic speed, along with the need to use digital platforms and tools to support this new paradigm, had teachers transforming static content into digital learning resources as quickly as possible to maintain the learning continuum for their students. Content that had never been considered before in a digital format needed to become transformed and re-imagined at speed.

Web-based video conferencing became the normal way to engage in real time with students, teachers and parents. Platforms, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, became the method of choice, and all of this occurred in a matter of days and weeks, instead of months and years, and often with little training, insufficient bandwidth, and hastily prepared plans. All this was done by the education champions – teachers, students and parents, connecting and engaging so that learning could continue with the delivery of lessons and resources, once built only for face-to-face, now done virtually.

With the pandemic utterly disrupting our education systems, this all transpired incredibly rapidly. It became a race against time to have the right technologies with the preferred hardware and software as COVID 19 took hold. It became evident it was no longer a choice to invest in digital technologies, but it was essential, and this change needed to be championed and supported by all stakeholders, not just schools.

The teachers and students were adopting and adapting, and the systems and structures had to realign and adjust quickly. Not everyone liked it or even embraced it to the same level, but all recognised it was necessary to ‘keep pace’ and meet the demands of learning in 2020. Change was accepted and adopted to ensure that students could access and engage in quality learning. Institutions saw the need to change, systems re-directed their focus, and funding was channeled more deliberately into technology. If the education stakeholders on the frontline were championing the change, then the systems needed to support this in turn.

Education technology specialists have become an essential resource in supporting teachers and students in driving and maintaining their commitment to their teaching and learning. They are vital in ensuring that teachers know how to navigate and connect with digital tools, engage in the collaboration spaces with their students, and deliver on quality teaching and learning – and this is now a significant priority for teachers’ professional learning. Also, by investing in new cloud based technologies, hardware, and software, schools can support and actively lead change and educational development rather than merely adapting to it.

With the right investment, the real champions of change will be the students. They will rise to the challenges, take each obstacle head on, and see their teachers and parents doing what needs to be done to support them with their learning, despite the challenges that face them. Champion teachers and parents will be needed to act as the role models for the next generation of champions of change.

By Nerida McGeachie, National Education Manager, IntegrateAV

Nerida McGeachie has been in Education for nearly 30 years. Her early career as a teacher in the first purpose-built technology High School, Cherrybrook Technology high School, ignited a passion in using technology to transform and enhance the learning of students.

Nerida’s career has focused on transforming learning environments from the Connected Classrooms project, the DER, and now as National Education Manager at Integrate AV she continues to investigate and support how learning can be made more engaging and relevant to students as technology and the spaces they use change.