Online Education and COVID-19

Today there is a local and planetary crisis due to the health emergency of the coronavirus. It would seem that uncertainty and economic recession condition the lifestyles of individuals and families. A return to normality as before is beginning to be perceived as an aspiration to an early return to our pre-pandemic lives.

Educational systems have adapted their processes to remote education that involves various strategies, such as virtual education, distanced learning, home schooling, synchronous and asynchronous classes. Along with this comes added confinement, teleworking and a new domestic rhythm in families and in people's lives. This new situation, in addition to challenging us to think about possibilities in education, urges us to respond in a new way to ensure educational support in this time of global emergency.

Uncertainty about the future

The feelings of uncertainty about the future and improvisations in the face of the pandemic have influenced the way in which face-to-face education adopts other emerging modalities. An immediate educational solution has consisted of adapting educational processes to online education, virtual learning or e-learning in a historical era of humanity where technology and the Internet keep us connected, informed and communicating in near real-time. However, the digital divide continues to be a reality not only for remote places and rural sectors, but also within urban centers or megacities.

Acknowledging a lack of signal quality in certain regions, technological devices that respond to new virtual applications, and technological infrastructure that meets the needs of family members in times of confinement –such as computer access for the whole family–allows us to reason that online education can be effective in some cases and not in others.

However, it has not been easy for educational institutions given that a face-to-face modality has prevailed in recent years, and non-face-to-face modalities were considered a non-option due to their costs or due to doubts about their academic quality.

How can we prepare for a new future in education?

This question invite us to think about a new starting point for education and the new relationships and interactions that will emerge between the different actors of the educational community. Mediated by technology and distancing strategies, education is hybridized within the home when it is time to innovate and transform teaching and learning. We find that other forms of education, articulating several strategies such as online education, distanced learning, innovative education, and technology-mediated education, are possible.