What the Edtech Industry Should Know About the Worst Parts of Remote Learning

The first time my mom interacted with an iPad was this August, when her 5-year-old grandson—my nephew—brought it home from school. Gus is a kindergartener, and his parents don’t have the luxury of being able to work from home, so my recently retired mother has become his education supervisor. She didn’t have a Gmail account, let alone familiarity with Google Classroom. Our family has become an ad hoc over-the-phone IT support unit. A spare bedroom—our family’s “teacher’s lounge”—has a wall covered with Post-it notes with login credentials, a mobile whiteboard schedule and a count-to-100 handmade poster. The dining room table has been repurposed as the classroom.

Our scenario isn’t unique; it’s playing out in millions of households across the nation. My family is fortunate to be able to accommodate and support the new paradigm of distance learning. But that’s not the case for many others–and we must now understand how to reach all students through this new paradigm, regardless of the circumstance…...…………………………………………………………………..