Capstone Post #2

When I heard we had to interview people I was confused because all the doctors are very busy so I thought “Who can I interview?”  I asked my mom and she said I could interview some people that she works with. The people that I interviewed were Geoff Rohem and Jonathan Harber.

Mr. Roehm is the Executive Director of Launch a charter Middle School in Queens. He thinks things are going to go back to normal after next year. 

Mr. Harbor is an entrepreneur, which is someone who starts a business. He was CEO and co-founder of Schoolnet but then later sold it to Pearson. He continues to work in the education technology industry. He thinks teachers will work from home and only the students that need a physical place to be can go to school. He also thinks there will be high-quality online schools developed as a result of current events that students and families who are looking for more flexibility may be interested in.

Below are the interview questions I created for each interview.

My questions for Geoff were:

  • How do you think teaching and learning are going during the pandemic so far?
  • What do you think is going well?
  • What do you think is going poorly?
  • What’s the biggest challenge for educating students?
  • How well do you think you were prepared for distance learning?
  • Do you think schools will reopen with students in the building?
  • How will that be different than in the past?
  • Will there be limitations on the number of students allowed?
  • With fewer students in the room, how will that impact teaching/learning?
  • How will distance learning be structured?
  • Will classrooms be structured differently?  (table versus desk)
  • How will that impact teaching/learning?
  • How will less student collaboration impact education? 
  • Will recess be allowed?
  • Will students eat lunch at school and how would it happen?
  • How will decreased socialization opportunities impact learning?
  • Will specials like art and music be taught?

My questions for Jonathan were:

  1. Currently, distance learning for me involves a few zooms a week and a lot of independent assignments.  Do you think that will stay the same next year or change?
  2. What do you think educators have learned over the past few months in terms of distance learning?
  3. What technology trends were happening before COVID and how will that change or accelerate?
  4. How do you think education will be impacted beyond next year?
  5. Do u have any thought about Bill Gates working with NYC to reimagine education
  6. Are there going to be any products or platforms do you think will play a big role in the long term.
  7. Do you think kids will have to go back to school 180 days a year in the future