These shifts have also opened the door to a vastly broader set of curricular possibilities. Students are learning to code; exploring distant countries through virtual reality; creating video games and robots; and deepening their understanding and application of science, technology, engineering and math. Educators have expanded their view of assessment, moving from tests of rote knowledge to demonstrations of critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication. 

These changes have also transformed the roles and responsibilities of IT staff. The emphasis on classroom technology, combined with widespread adoption of one-to-one device programs, has placed massive demands on school infrastructure, particularly networking. In addition, much like their counterparts in other industries, K–12 IT leaders are now involved in every facet of operations: 74 percent say their responsibilities include both educational and administrative technologies, up from 63 percent in 2019, according to research from the Consortium for School Networking.

As technology has evolved, IT leaders have had to adapt staffing accordingly, ensuring they have the skills to support everything from cloud computing to educational software. Today’s IT departments must include both generalists and highly skilled specialists. 

However dramatic these evolutions have been, they were still situated in the physical classroom. That changed in early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to move quickly to remote learning. 

Two make-or-break factors shaped districts’ experiences: technological readiness and educator readiness. For students who lacked adequate devices or high-speed internet access at home, the same technologies that once opened doors to new learning experiences became a barrier to keeping up. It also became clear that, however much progress teachers had made in integrating digital content, they were completely unprepared for remote learning. In one region of Texas studied by the Urban Education Institute, 95 percent of teachers had no previous experience with online teaching. 

In their first encounter with remote learning, many teachers struggled to engage students and to translate lessons to the virtual space. They have had to develop new ways to provide access to assignments, facilitate collaboration and communicate with students and families. These realities have exacerbated an existing challenge in K–12 education, in which teachers consistently report that they lack the skills and knowledge to optimize educational technology. 

The rapid shift to remote learning, together with the need to prepare for various scenarios amid pandemic-related uncertainty, has stretched IT teams thin. The pandemic has forced IT departments to accomplish in weeks what they normally might have tackled in months. Districts that lacked one-to-one device programs have struggled tremendously, and IT teams have been at the forefront of efforts to overcome these hurdles.

A recent survey by the International Society for Technology in Education and BrightBytes (PDF) found that the majority of teachers, students and parents say they always or usually have access to device-related technical support from their schools when they need it. The flip side of this positive outcome, of course, is that IT staff are spending a significant amount of time responding to these requests, even as they work to manage new workloads, transition to or expand the use of cloud computing, and address new security threats and vulnerabilities.

For the foreseeable future, most districts will remain focused on improving and optimizing remote instruction; when possible, transitioning back to fully in-person instruction; and working to address the lags in academic progress that many fear have resulted from this uneven period of remote learning. When McKinsey analyzed high schoolers’ experiences with remote learning in 2020, it identified three groups: students continuing to progress academically, albeit more slowly than usual; those receiving low-quality instruction that hinders their progress; and those receiving no instruction at all.

From an opportunity perspective, experiments in remote learning are likely to add momentum to calls for change in pedagogy, for improvement in digital equity and for innovation in the embrace of classroom technologies. Schools may also respond to these experiences by renewing their focus on professional development programs that prepare teachers for technological fluency within a modern pedagogical approach — one that is capable of delivering high-quality instruction both face to face and online. 

Finally, K–12 educators will be asking how to evolve the modern learning environment from here. If the traditional classroom was out of step with active learning before the pandemic, it may seem even more disconnected after it, once students and teachers have mastered the art of “anytime, anywhere learning.” In addition, the emerging technologies of today — virtual reality, artificial intelligence–powered personalized learning, data-driven analytics — will mature in ways that push the boundaries of education even further. As educators continue to advance pedagogy for the modern age, the role of technology will shift accordingly, adding value to IT solutions that are adaptable and flexible.