"My Student Is a Supernova": The Digital Classroom and COVID-19 as Novel Learning Environments

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Research on Digital Learning Environments During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

In this paper we share results from our community participatory study of teaching and care at two schools located in the San Gabriel Valley of Southern California during the pandemic. Using digital ethnography and oral history interviews we explore what happens when teaching and care are transferred to novel learning environments for students, teachers and administrators. We interpret “learning environment” as both the hybrid interconnected physical and virtual spaces comprising the digital classroom and the COVID-19 pandemic which emerged and affected school communities differently depending upon resources, privilege, and serendipity. Our work examines how educators taught, adapted, and sought to care for students during a global pandemic.

Authors

• Nadine Tanio, University of California - Irvine

• Fred Ariel Hernandez, University of California - Irvine