One subtle example & manifestation of thinking that pretends online education is a new phenomena and/or doesn’t acknowledge or know some of the body of work behind it - is the growing number of bombastic thought pieces grappling with the effects of a teaching and learning...1/

environment that is fundamentally different to a more conventional one. Unfortunately, many of these are from those within digital education and I think this highlights an important point...2/

Online education was so niche prior to the pandemic that it was quite possible to work in digital education/EdTech and have little understanding of online learning and teaching and the particular challenges and differences...3/

Supporting the use technology in conventional on-campus teaching was often quite far removed from online learning and teaching...4/

The differences and the need for learning and teaching to be different to account for it aren’t particularly new. Obviously, this is a unique world event and driver to online learning, however much work has been done...5/

in exploring the differences and effects of learning and teaching online and how teaching and the environment needs to consider this carefully over many years...6/

We need those within digital education who have a deep understanding of this and learning amongst other things in order to chart the path and support educators and administrators within universities move forward...7/

Esoteric pieces that boil down to superficial commentary on videoconferencing, cameras on or off and signalling that you’ve used an online collaborative board slightly creatively...8/

without any kind of sense that there’s much pre-existing knowledge of online learning and teaching make me concerned about those helping organisations chart a path forward...9/

As Carl Sagan said ‘You have to understand the past to understand the present’ and if you’re working within digital education, seeking to do so in respect to online and blended education is not an unprofitable endeavour...10/

Now is not the time for pretension that supposes that all things are new. Those with underpinning knowledge of online and blended learning and teaching, informed by the work behind it...11/

...and cognisant of new, notable work will be the most valuable to organisations thinking about what the future should look like. /end