Target is not in financial difficulty and is actually doing well. The sale of ⅓ of its corporate headquarters space is the result of deciding that after experiencing the pandemic and many employees working remotely, it no longer made sense to continue to spend money on the amount of office space it had accumulated. The cost of the space and the hassles and wasted time of commuting and parking in a downtown area could no longer be justified. The daily gathering of many who could easily work at a distance no longer made sense.
I mainly write about education and bringing up the situation with Target may not seem connected, but like Target will the experiences of remote working lead to changes. Many have made this prediction during the past year, but I would guess most also thought when gathering in the same locations to work or learn would return to normal in a few months. I think we will see some changes.
I would guess K12 education will change the least. Maybe more upper-level students will take courses remotely to allow the flexibility to work or to take courses not available in the local district. Remote learning may even mean that students go to their traditional school, but take courses from elsewhere.
I am guessing higher education will be impacted the most. This change has been coming for years. I taught several graduate courses to folks who worked, but wanted a graduate degree for advanced certification or unique skills. For practicing teachers who wanted to add a course to their existing schedule and travel time to reach a campus were often prohibitive and most colleges of education have been serving these students at a distance for some time.
My usual situation involved simultaneously teaching students in a classroom and others who joined online. In the “old days”, this was first accomplished by links among multiple gathering locations perhaps other colleges or a few high schools willing to host those from the region. The online experience then eventually shifted to individual computers with teachers often preferring to connect at the end of the day from their classrooms to be assured of a good connection and fewer distractions. Obviously, this worked only for those from the same geographic region and others might join later to catch the end of class and use a recording for the earliest segments. My other experience has been with individuals involved in a program focused on Instructional Design. This field is more specialized and is approached at a distance for the same reason high school students may take specialized courses online – the interest in any one location does not justify the cost of instruction.
I now wonder if full-time students who might go to a campus at present might take some of their coursework remotely as a way to reduce cost. The social experience of living and studying with other students is great value for learning and networking, but taking online courses as replacements for large lecture classes and perhaps freshman composition courses makes some sense to me.
An activity that I expect to change is the large conference. We attended the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) conference for years. I usually paid my own way because I also attended the AERA (American Educational Research Association) conference and applied any money I was provided by my university to this conference as it was more directly related to my teaching and research duties. Transportation, lodging, food, and registration fees would regularly mean I was paying more than $1000 out of pocket. That amount of money would easily purchase all of the relevant books I cared to read making the value of the conference hard to justify. Many argue that the value is in networking, but I have found conferences mostly of value for getting together with people I already know. At the K12 level, ISTE would cost about the same per teacher that attends and the value for sending many teachers seems questionable. I think less expensive regional conferences make more sense.
I have participated in a couple of online conferences this past year. I think there is potential. For most, I have not paid and this often means the presenters are supported by or are representatives of corporate sponsors. ISTE charged me $135 for early, early bird registration (now $155 I think) and offers presentations from more individuals selected in the normal way of reviewing presentation proposals. If large conferences continue, I predict they will be smaller in face-to-face attendance, but benefit from a paid online option.
