My kid attends a @tdsb school, in a primary grade. My wife is a TDSB teacher, primary grade. The last few weeks have been fascinating on the education front. A weekend thread!

1. The speed at which TDSB moved to distance learning is impressive. I don’t have insight into contingency plans they had, but I’m sure they flew by the seat of their pants (at least to an extent) like all of us. The challenge of pivoting an org that big (16k teachers) is huge.

2. The technical proficiency of teachers in any board is all over the place. And telling teachers within a board to move their entire practice online NOW would be an immense challenge for any teacher, technically proficient or not.

3. Behind the scenes, TDSB has a Digital Lead Learners program ( @TDSB_DLL), which my wife is part of, who’ve mobilized en masse because of this pivot and are working like crazy.

4. Check out their webinar list. Accessible learning w/ GSuite, Flipgrid, PDFs. Guide to Google Meet. Specific teaching strategies within all of those. Resource licensing! The list is varied and large.

5. I can hear some of these webinars at home. Each is VERY well-attended. “Office hours” held outside of these get a steady stream of teachers asking questions from the very basic to deeply technical. Teachers are ramping their online teaching skills fast.

6. This whole experience will accelerate how much tech is used in classes by YEARS. To date, teachers have much leeway in the amount of tech they use in their programs. Maybe that continues. But many will have more skills and experience with tech now.

7. As an outside observer, one big thing to still be nailed (IMO) is platform. Google Classroom (TDSB platform of choice) feels like it was made by a smart company, but not teachers. Moreover, my kid’s daily work now takes him to multiple tools and sites. It feels disjointed.

8. As things settle and there’s more time to think strategically, smart school boards will review what tools worked and which didn’t during the pandemic. I think many platform switches are in line to be made.