Abstract:

The hasty switch to online and hybrid learning necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic brought about a period of intense experimentation with Edtech tools such as Zoom, Teams, Feedback Fruits, Miro and Mentimeter, many of which had already proved useful to the Active Blended Learning (ABL) and Flipped Learning (FL) classroom. These tools have grown in number and in sophistication thanks to the pandemic, with upgrades and additional features incorporated due to extra funding and a hugely increased customer-base. Now, two years into the pandemic, there is a palpable sense amongst educators and students alike that we are at a crossroads - these newly pervasive Edtech tools might change everything, or they might (in a pedagogical sense) change nothing at all. Learning technologies are pedagogically neutral. They can be used to reinforce traditional, didactic methods of teaching and learning by enabling recorded one-way lectures and multiple-choice quizzes that test knowledge acquired by rote. They can also be used in innovative ways that change the relationships between teachers and learners, between learners and the way they acquire and use knowledge, and between learners and their peers (Cope and Kalantzis, 2017).

Our research explores how the relationships between teachers and students, between students and their peers, and between students and knowledge itself are changing in six hybrid classes currently being taught at Hult International Business School in the Fall term (2021). What kinds of active knowledge-making and collaborative work are possible in the hybrid classroom, where some students are present in the physical classroom and others Zoom in from home? To what extent do Edtech tools such as Miro, Mentimeter, Interactive Readings and Discussion Boards live up to their promise to create online spaces where students can interact with their peers and present and assess learnable content no matter where they are in the world? As Loan (2021) describes, "practice is always social" - applying one's learning in the classroom or in the workplace is a social activity, and students need practice to do this effectively, especially in the hybrid classroom. When used appropriately, Edtech can help shift the focus in the classroom from a largely didactic model of individual cognition to a more dialogical one that emphasizes collaborative intelligence and the ability to navigate a content-rich online world (Cope and Kalantzis, 2017). This shift in focus calls for a change in assessment types and systems, which in turn reinforces the changes in the kind of relationships described.

Our paper presents qualitative and quantitative data from online surveys, data analytics, peer reviews, focus groups, course evaluations and course outputs to gain as detailed a picture of the changes involved as possible. The paper explores the extent to which the two faculty members teaching these six courses were able to exploit Edtech tools to create learning environments that are genuinely more engaging, more effective, and more collaborative than those possible in pre-pandemic classrooms that lacked these tools. The principles and ideals of reflexive and dialogical pedagogy are not new, but Edtech arguably offers fresh ways to make them more practicable. Investigating what works and why, will help teachers interested in reflexive pedagogy redesign their own programs and courses.

Keywords:

Edtech, reflexive pedagogy, active blended learning, pandemic, hybrid classrooms, assessment, student engagement, collaborative learning, higher education.