Many educators, both in public (K-12, higher ed) and private (corporate, non-profit) education systems have found themselves in a situation that requires them to think for the first time about how their learners access learning opportunities. Due to coronavirus and COVID-19, most public spaces have been physically closed, including schools and businesses of all kinds, but required to stay open to continue operations through some sort of technology. This has led to an inevitable question:

What is the best technology for education?

Some might think it is a learning management system, like Moodle, or D2L Brightspace, or maybe Zoom, or MS Teams, or AI. The list could go on for a very long time, as you may have experienced in the spring of 2020. The fact is, none of these technologies can do anything to teach. All of these technologies are completely reliant on the input of a caring and competent person to engage with the people on the other side of the ‘screen’, who are the learners. And that is a focus of this first topic in EDCI 339. How can community develop in these remote and technologically mediated learning environments?

Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash