TRENDS IN DIGITAL ADAPTATION OF SCHOOLS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has launched school digital transformation with educational technologies implemented in classrooms worldwide. Teachers and learners have faced the challenges of adaptation to a new mode – digitally-based distance teaching and learning. In this regard, a question arises, whether schools have adapted successfully to new digitally-based distance learning or failed. Therefore, the research is focused on revealing the trends in schools’ digital adaptation and transformation during the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. The research issue is solved due to a combination of various approaches, e.g. a qualitative content analysis of documents published online in 2020-2021 and conducting surveys and interviews of students at Ukrainian schools from December 2020 to February 2021. These approaches make it possible to reveal positive and negative trends in school digital transformation at macro- and micro levels from the perspective of pandemic-related measures on international and national levels, as well as students’ perception of emergency distance learning. The research presents the ranks of countries in line with the accessibility and affordability of EdTech having been implemented in schools in crisis. Moreover, the research discusses the following issues: the COVID-19 pandemic impact on schools and school-related measures, EdTech implementation in classroom and schools’ digital transition, digital divide and inequity in education, generation gap, learning loss and achievement gap, teacher’s creativity and methodology shift. The collected data supports theoretical insights about trends in school education during the pandemic. The principal findings of the research are that the emergency integration of information technology in school education has changed the traditional way of teaching and learning worldwide. EdTech implementation encourages teachers to provide creative teaching and develop novel approaches to meet Net generation students’ needs in a virtual educational environment. The research results can contribute to policymaking and strategy development of further school digital transformation in times of crisis.