I’ve had a profound week, utterly immersed in all things digital, with two intense days online with the EdTech Summit 2020 in which two radically superior classroom online platforms were used, AND two far, far superior collaborative ‘white boards’ (comparing Padlet, Trello and Jamboard) were used too – the most impressive being something called Miro from www.miro.com 

I’ve got about 8 hours of notes with screenshots, and recordings to go back over all to write up over the weekend. I’ll work through the weekend because I feel we are, right now, pushing through a fundamental change in the way education is delivered. 2021 will not be a return to 2019 – and 2020 can only be defined by the pandemic.

The word from all the ‘top table’ names who spoke at EdTech, Government Ministers, leaders from Education, Academy, FE College and University heads, is that working online and ‘at a distance’ will see a substantial part of any curriculum not only being based on digital availability, but will be delivered online too.

My own experience between the digital and analogue worlds is that we are quickly establishing what works best, either online, or face to face, and where the mix, or a hybrid study world will land. Workshops need students under cars, cutting wood, shaping hair, building props and putting up stage lights. ‘Book Learning’ is most readily translated to the digital domain, indeed, platforms and Apps which teach accountancy and law do a better job than the lecturer. What is still needed though is the personalised feedback and the adjustment and monitoring of course content and its consumption to individualise the learning journey a student goes on.