COVID Analysis: Teaching and Learning in a Post Pandemic World

Here’s a startling assertion: The post-pandemic world is going to be different. To characterize the Covid-19 pandemic as tectonic is an understatement. As one of the defining events of our time, the post pandemic reality will not be the same world we knew before.

Guttenberg revolutionized the world, but the true impact of his printing press was not felt for decades and even centuries. The pandemic could reshape the world, much as World War II and the Great Depression did.

In a post-pandemic reality, our daily lives will change: from eating in restaurants to telecommuting. And yet the most significant changes are the ones unnoticed — the large groundswells that will shape our future the most: our relationship with government, with one another, virtualization, de-urbanization a redefinition of community to name a few. It’s the principle and values that change overarching concepts that will make lasting change. Most of these are already in play. The virus will only accelerate those. Jake Sullivan, a top Biden adviser, said: “Even Republicans — younger Republicans — have recognized that the center of gravity is shifting on the relationship between the state and the market.”

In a matter of weeks, coronavirus (COVID-19) has changed how students are educated around the world. Those changes give us a glimpse of how education could change for the better – or the worse – in the long term.