This leads into his premise that the world we knew, no longer exists and worse because we are constantly looking backwards our designs are obsolete before they can be tried out. Education like business is focused on outcomes. But what happens when we design instruction, research, assessment, etc. on a world that doesn't exist. This pandemic has made it painfully clear that our world has changed. Eddie would say it changed "at midnight" years ago. The most sobering thought that Eddie said is 'that the pace of change has overtaken the pace of learning'. We need to think about what this means for education.
Eddie advises us that it is a mistake to reproduce the culture and ineffectiveness of our pre-COVID world. When he spoke about the cycle driven process, I immediately thought about our PLC implementation. His quote "If you don't understand the world you are living in, how can you be sure that what you are designing fits?" resonated with me. I have been worried that I have become accustomed to the reality of my school. That I am teaching with a set of expectations that are accepted where I am at. Yet I have this thought in the back of my mind that my reality is like the water in the pan and I am the frog that doesn't notice that the water is getting warmer. I need to be able to connect with other teachers, in other places to check on the validity of my reality. On his website he says "Creativity and innovation overcome the traditional limits of hierarchy and geography". My idea to connect outside the constraints of my school and the geographical location speaks to this notion. I am actively reaching out to study the PLC process at Phillips and I have connected to a 4th grade class in Perth Amboy, NJ (through Empatico.org)
There is so much more that Eddie Obeng has written that will help us to design for the future. He says that remote working may be more productive but because many were working so many more hours each day, that it may not be sustainable. I concur. I also like that he makes it clear that tools (like Zoom) were not meant to be used independently, without the support of face-to-face interaction. We need to examine our tools as much as we need to look closely at our designs for distance teaching.
Check out AfterMidnight.com. Needless to say I am now following Eddie on all platforms. Don't tell my husband. I hope you will enjoy Eddie's perspective.