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The pandemic has taught us a few things over the last year. In one way or another, we all had to figure out, in some cases quickly, how to work remotely. The teaching and learning dynamics were made particularly interesting. In my case, after a couple of weeks of working from my home office, I needed to get back to campus to help me create an emotional separation between work and life. I needed a transition between environments to come closer to achieving life and work balance. At the same time, being in a face-to-face setting was uncomfortable. Additionally, data show that students are starting to re-evaluate what the college experience is and can be. For some and their parents, the pandemic revealed an alternative model where career development goals could be met with a smaller financial footprint.
These are some of the issues that make us ask: What should the Teaching Space of Tomorrow look like? I am very intentional in the way I ask the question. A lot of work has focused on the classroom of tomorrow, but here, I am flipping the question a bit and focusing on the instructor experience. I do not think I have the answer to the question posed in the title, but here are some thoughts.
1 – Do I really need a blackboard or whiteboard? For decades, if not centuries, we depended on an artifact that is hanging from the wall on which we write, diagram, annotate, etc. We have turned our back to the students to use it. In the teaching space of tomorrow, do we need boards? If students are not in the room, or even if they are, do we need a board? And for that matter, do we need a projector? How else do we share processes and thoughts with the students?
2 – What is key when we teach at a distance? I keep coming back to the thought that we really need to focus on figuring out how we can engage with all students all over the state, country, and world.
3 – How can technology allow us to teach today and tomorrow in ways we could not before? Are we using cameras and screens to recreate what we do in a regular classroom, break down the walls of the traditional teaching space and bring in holograms, or transport our students into a new set of experiences where we revisit what learning is?
4 – If we are teaching at a distance, how do we create equity for students with different levels of access to technology and broadband?
If you are interested in these and other questions, there are some things we can do right now. Firstly, we invite you to join the Yammer community below, and share your thoughts, provide feedback, and bring ideas to the table. Secondly, you can also apply to become the Instructor in Residence at the Technology Innovation Office and help design and test the Teaching Space of Tomorrow through the 2021 Teaching and Learning with Technology Innovation Grants program. You can get more information here. We look forward to hearing from you.
Dr. Carlos Solís is Associate Vice President of the Technology Innovation Office.
