Voices from the Digital Classroom: 25 Interviews about Teaching and Learning in the Face of a Global Pandemic

A fascinating inside view of the rapid transition to remote education as emergency COVID-19 response and an inspiration for the future of digital learning in a post-pandemic world.

The sudden shift to remote education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic created both a unique challenge and a unique opportunity. Students and instructors alike were required to quickly adapt to the digital classroom, adjusting methods, material, and pedagogical approaches on the fly.

Bringing together twenty-five interviews from the frontline of emergency remote education, Voices from the Digital Classroom portrays the struggles, innovations, and resilience of students, instructors, and educational professionals in the face of COVID-19. These interviews offer a unique, of-the-moment perspective on an exceptional time.

Complemented by additional voices that expand on stories told to reflect on challenges, successes, and lessons learned, Voices from the Digital Classroom is both a time-capsule and a vision for the future. It provides new insights into pandemic teaching and learning, a remarkable lens into the daily realities of the digital classroom, and an inspiration for the future of remote education in a post-pandemic world.

Published by LCR Publishing

Fabian Neuhaus is associate professor in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape at the University of Calgary. He is the research lead for the Richard Parker Initiative and principal investigator for TALON, the Teaching and Learning Network.

Sandra Abegglen is a researcher in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape at the University of Calgary. She is the project lead for TALON and has published extensively on emancipatory learning and teaching practice, creative and playful pedagogy, and remote education.

Kylie Wilson is a graduate student in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape at the University of Calgary. She is a graduate assistant researcher for TALON.

Foreword
Introduction
Acknowledgments

Series One Interviews

Gregory Tweedie
Patrick Kelly
Anthony Seto
Isadora Mok-Kulakova and Laura Perissinotti
Kris Hans and Erik Christiansen
Tom Burns
Brian McDonough
Robin Whitteker
Anna-Maria Meister
Darby-Marie Henshaw
Charlie Smith
Jane MacFarlane
Sandra Sinfield
Christal Ramanauskas

Portraits
Rationale for Portraits

Series Two Interviews

Maha Bali
Ruth Healey
Rujuta Nayak
Dimitri Giannoulis
Mary-Ellen Tyler
Guy Gardner
Lisa K. Forbes and David Thomas
David Gauntlett
Kiu Sum
Lisa Silver
Thomas Keenan

Rationale for Design
Afterword
TALON Manifesto
TALON Glossary
TALON Team

Voices from the Digital Classroom sets an agenda for online education in academia. It does so in powerfully grounded ways via the stories, practices, and experiences of those at the interface of learning and teaching, and technological change. The collection serves as a time capsule for the operations of knowledge sharing and network effects in higher education during the COVID-19 global pandemic.

—Phillip Kalantzis-Cope, Chief Social Scientist, Common Ground Research Networks

Voices from the Digital Classroomshows us that amongst the range of responses and the diversity of experiences, we are united by more than divides us: a common sense of care and connection, sharing and community.

—Journal of Learning in Development in Higher Education