Less predicting, more shaping: Reflections on the upcoming year

Recently I’ve been asked quite a few times for my predictions about what’s going to happen with digital learning in 2022, in particular as the effects of the pandemic wane. Beyond my usual stock answer—I’m not good at predictions, particularly about the future—I’ve come to believe that we as a Digital Learning Collaborative should be taking a stronger stance.

Not on predicting the future, but on shaping the future. Or perhaps more accurately, taking a stronger stance on helping our DLC members shape the future. If DLC members and DLAC attendees are able to push for more change within and adjacent to their own circles, collectively we will play a role in a shift in education.

This is a tricky adjustment to pull off, and one we’re not taking lightly. We don’t see our role as primarily an advocacy organization. Instead, we see ourselves as having several related functions: 1) creating and disseminating the information that helps educators and educational organizations in our field; 2) supporting those educators and organizations by facilitating collaborations, networking, shared learning, and similar, and 3) supporting organizations with direct services from time to time, although at a lesser scale than the first two sets of activities.

But times like these call for a re-evaluation of our role. We believe that the confluence of events of the past two years has created an inflection point for online, hybrid, and blended learning. Nearly every student and family has experienced some form of remote learning, for good and (too often) bad. The entire education system is grappling with unprecedented labor shortages, from teachers to bus drivers to school and district leaders. Parents may or may not be down on public schools overall, depending on what source you review and how you cut the data, but those parents who are upset about the direction of public schools are more vocal and influential than ever. And of course, all this is occurring against the late stages of the largest upheaval of our lifetimes, with nearly a million pandemic-related deaths in the US, and also unprecedented mental and emotional tolls on essentially everyone—and especially students.

These events create and/or demonstrate shortcomings in the current system, and the need for change. They also clearly demonstrate that a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to work at any level. More than ever, students and parents want options. Students and families want the power to choose whether to attend full-time school onsite, or full-time online school, or something in between.

But this isn’t pre-pandemic “school choice,” which was almost always rooted in alternatives outside of traditional public school districts. School choice has typically alluded to charter schools, private schools, homeschooling, educational savings accounts, and other similar options. These are all valuable; they can and should continue to be part of the educational landscape. But 85% or so of school-age children and teenagers remain enrolled in traditional school districts. For large scale change to occur, one or both of two things must happen. Either a larger percentage of students and families will choose options outside of traditional public schools, or public school districts will create their own options.

We are hoping for both. DLC members and DLAC attendees represent all of the above options. We aim to help those that are already creating options for students to continue to grow and improve. We also aim to help those that are not yet offering a range of options to get there, by creating their own alternatives.

This shift may seem subtle, but it will influence the topics that we cover, the members that we seek out, the potential DLAC presenters that we pursue, and the topics that we write about. The shift may also entail being more straightforward about what we see as roadblocks to making schools work better for students, and for the educators, policymakers, and reporters who are truly focused on students.

We look forward to being on this journey with you, in 2022 and beyond.