What do you think is the future of modality in education?

In a world with lots of diversity and evolving technology and tools, I see modality in education becoming more and more towards multi-access as it focuses on needs and inclusivity. This week I really liked the connection to Shelley Moores inclusive circle images seen in this video.

When reviewing Shelley Moore’s video, it makes me think of the amount of times technology is integrated instead of purposefully used in the classroom. Similarly shouldn’t we include technology as an option for modality instead of integrate it for everyone. That is what Shelley Moore explains regarding these terms. Yet, many articles discuss the importance of integrating technology. Are we sure, we want to integrate technology instead of including.

On that same thought, I believe that based on the diverse needs students have regarding mental health, diverse abilities, family dynamics, trauma etc, access to flexible learning is needed and therefore I think and hope that the future of modality for education will shift to having more options for students and families to be able to do Face to Face when they need and shift to online when they need. Therefore the modality of Multi-Access seems like the one that will best meet all needs.

As teachers, when we were asked the following focus question, “can you think about a case where a learner was unable to access education due to modality or inflexibility in learning design?” We could all think of a specific situation, although I won’t go into depth on my blog post. Do note that access to education and learning design are very important considerations. Anxiety is very predominant in people and students today and as educators we want to be able to meet that need and all needs, but modality and systems can sometimes be in the way of doing that. With schools like PSII in Victoria BC (I know there are other schools, but my brother had a very great experience with the different structure for learning that PSII provides).

The various structures and terms that we have in the history of education is constantly being looked at and I believe as people become more aware of modalities and options; and as they become more normalized through the public system, then the preferred option may move to multi-access as it meets NEEDS at all times.