Keith Halliday, Yukon economist and author of the MacBride Museum’s Aurore of the Yukon series of historical children’s adventure novels observes, The pandemic has unleashed a wave of involuntary innovation in education. And this has big implications for learners in the North.
The pandemic has unleashed a wave of involuntary innovation in education. And this has big implications for learners in the North.
University students in the Yukon take courses in Halifax. University students in India take courses at Yukon University. Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) students do their book learning remotely in Whitehorse, and travel to Edmonton with their masks for intense bursts of in-person practical training. High school students attend school alternate days and get work experience in between. Parents lean over the home-study table and rack their brains to remember French and algebra tips they last studied two decades ago.
Change was accelerating even before the pandemic. Khan Academy, which offers excellent online lessons for everything from elementary math and English to university chemistry, has over 75 million users. Almost a quarter million teachers use it in their classrooms. With the support of Bill Gates and other donors, it expanded its free courses into 43 languages and a mobile app. There are many English-as-a-second-language platforms that connect English speakers in Canada with students in China and elsewhere. Or think of the more than 100 million people worldwide in 2019 enrolled in MOOCs, the ugly term for Massive Open Online Courses. Big players such as Coursera and Udacity kicked off more than 40 new degree programs in the two years before the pandemic...
Students in the Yukon and around the world are trying to prepare themselves to thrive in a world that is rapidly changing. Consider just three of the megatrends sweeping the planet.
Source: Yukon News