There's no such thing as "remote learning."

There is learning. It happens.

A lot of what is called "remote learning" is content delivery within systems where admins have starved teachers of options and support, using tech that was oversold, remains unproven, and doesn't deliver

School tech is currently on a spectrum between supporting student learning (and student/teacher interactions) and supporting surveillance of both teachers and students.

It's slanted toward surveillance. The more a service/tech trends toward surveillance, the worse it is for authentic, spontaneous engagement.

Want better outcomes? Dial down the surveillance.

(yeah - people are less likely to engage when they don't trust. Shocking, I know)

Admins have put these systems into play via their uncritical adoption of "educational" technology that has virtually NO evidence base that demonstrates that it works.

And now they are surprised that it doesn't work. And some of them blame kids, and point to "failing" grades.

And parents - it's hard to see your kid struggle.

(I know - believe me, I know. Right now, my kid is one room over listening to garbled audio because the district still can't figure out how to use microphones)

But what we are seeing isn't the failure of remote learning.

It's the failure of the current crop of "educational leaders."

There is a pandemic going on. Teaching and learning is really hard right now. It's way too easy to blame this on "remote learning."

This simplistic finger pointing won't address the systemic issues that led us here.

Our current edtech is largely surveillance tech. It works great at surveillance. It's less good at supporting learning.

Our current admins, in many cases, aren't up to the task - and that's fine, providing they approach their upcoming learning openly, by centering learners.