When we first went on lockdown, nobody was sure of the implications it would have on schooling and student/teacher communication. This article on collaborative learning on the pandemic explores how teachers and students have made leaps and bounds in just how far we can push the use of helpful technology in the classroom (or at home).

One of the main losses of the pandemic was the sense of community. People lost a connection and became very independent workers as everyone began to adapt to working from home. This was a challenge technology saw a fix for as different apps including zoom, google meets and others that allowed for people to continue a collaboration in the education and the workforce. The pandemic allowed for a lot of creativity in the classroom as teachers had to continue engaging students while they were only a few feet away from their bed.This new teaching agenda created space for communicating with students in a different environment. Teachers had to begin to try and get to know students for a new school year behind a laptop screen.

Students also had to get to know their peers through that of breakout rooms and group chats. The sense of collaboration was lost upon many, yet in a way the pandemic allowed for the community to see the importance of collaborating in these settings. Society cannot function without the ideas of one another. So through these platforms people began to find new ways to collaborate. Teachers had to work harder to get to know their students and also assign more group work so students could still get to know everyone in the class. Not every student can fit on that of the screen of an ipad, so classmate collaboration and sense of community was not easy to do over the internet. Teacher’s wanted discussion and so they allowed for students to do so in breakout rooms and group projects. Although the pandemic pushed society apart physically, there was a large understanding across the nation that everyone mentally understood each other. This connection created a space for collaboration and it also showed people that there was no “right” way to handle this situation but to share with colleagues what strategies have worked best for them. Teachers also had to learn much more about different apps as well as students.