Difference between revisions of "The Rise of The Gatekeeper (2020-2050)"

Revision as of 10:23, 16 June 2020

2000-2020

Throughout the first two decades of the 21st century, improvements in computer-based technologies, including electronic whiteboards and personal laptop computers, became increasingly incorporated into classroom learning (Wiki). School districts increasingly implemented and encouraged one-to-one computing, ensuring that all students in grade school would need a personal laptop. During this time, computers significantly effected traditional teaching methodologies into more “a shift in emphasis from reception-oriented to production-bases approaches…” (de Castell and Jenson, 2007, 116). Despite these challenges, numerous educational stakeholders pushed concepts detailed in Toward Defining 21st Century Competencies for Ontario. Changes such as this, along with the evolutions in the ways that 21st century learners communicate, further impacted utilization of technology in teaching and learning. The rise of Web 2.0 in the classroom allowed teachers to highlight the growing importance of using multiple modalities in design-based learning. Students were now able to express themselves using a combination of podcasts, music, graphics, video, vodcasts, and photos alongside traditional writing. Students who previously had difficulties expressing themselves through writing could increasingly communicate in creative multimodal ways. Students' creations were no longer designed for a teacher/grader alone, but had to be created for an audience of countless online prosumers (Gee, 2008, 236). Teachers needed to find new ways of tapping into enhanced abilities of computer technology by utilizing various Web 2.0 tools to enhance instruction, as these technologies helped encourage student self-expression, collaboration with peers, and opportunities for authentic deep learning experiences (Fullan and Langworthy, 2014, 21-22).

At the same time, significant concerns grew surrounding resource access for many Ontarians. While some students could easily afford laptops and fast internet speeds, others were challenged with this access, causing serious problems in socio-economic stratification occurring through education. This was further problematized under the conservative provincial government, which was voted into power in 2018. Under this government, Education Minister Stephen Lecce made strong pushes to increase the number of required online courses, due to cheaper running costs. Elementary and secondary school teachers, as well as college instructors, resisted increasing demands to move their courses online, stating that such moves would cause further educational stratification and be too complex to complete in an extremely short period of time. There are even reports that this conservative provincial government supressed poll results finding that parents, too, resisted increasing the number of required online courses.

The beginning of 2020, however, challenged the claim that it would take extensive amounts of time for Ontario instructors to move to fully online learning formats. The end of 2019 revealed the rise of a new, highly infectious virus, originally called ‘Coronavirus,’ but later renamed ‘Covid-19.’ The rapid spread of Covid-19 across the globe forced an equally rapid shift in education: instructors were forced to move their courses online at a pace never before seen in education.

2040

In 2036, the conservative government’s Minister of Education, Jack Praetorian, finally achieved what the 2016-2020 provincial government could not: elementary, secondary, and college courses were now strictly offered in online digital platforms. Prior to 2036, technology had been increasingly incorporated into all government-funded education. Covid-19’s rapid spread in 2020 had initiated instructors to think about how they could offer their courses online. In the years following Covid-19, many of these teachers had managed to work out many of the problems emerging in the earlier days of online teaching and learning. With many of the initial problems now addressed through a plethora of new apps, Ontario’s conservative government no longer saw justification for brick-and-mortar schools, particularly citing operational costs as a crucial argument for boards to sell off the properties. The Ontario government, therefore, made the move to sell off school properties. The first property sold in Ontario occurred in 2037: the York Region District School Board sold the Markham District High School property to Apple. The building was converted into an Apple Superstore.

A Rising Problem

There is, however, one growing issue arising from the transition from brick-and-mortar schools to fully online education. The ‘1:1 program,’ initiated c. 2006-2009, requires that all students be issued a login by the school board. This login allows students to access school-related courses, lectures, and assignments. Students are issued, by their school board, a username. Usernames usually consisted of a student’s first and last name, followed by a school board’s online address (example: firstlast@board.ca). At the start of the ‘1:1 program,’ hacking of student accounts and records rarely occurred. Over time, however, students’ accounts increasingly integrated other personal information, such as social insurance numbers, phone numbers, and bank account information. Students, and board employees, were increasingly linking all kinds of information through these board accounts, usually accessed through a cellphone. Hacking of student and board employee accounts, therefore, increased drastically between 2021 and 2036. Alongside the demand that teachers convert to teaching courses fully online, the conservative government created the Cathedral app. This app was required for accessing board accounts. Built into Cathedral was a security program called ‘The Gatekeeper.’ This Gatekeeper program remains the most secure program guarding students’ and teachers’ board accounts and information.