What to Know
- Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday morning during his daily coronavirus briefing that New York State and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are collaborating to develop a blueprint to reimagine education in the new normal that is life during the pandemic
- The state and the Gates Foundation will bring together a group of experts to assist
- Schools in New York, the state hardest hit by COVID-19, will remain closed for the rest of the academic year, Cuomo previously announced
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday morning during his daily coronavirus briefing that New York State and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are collaborating to develop a blueprint to reimagine education in the new normal that is life during the pandemic.
"Let’s learn from this experience," Cuomo said. "We did a lot of remote learning. Frankly we weren’t prepared to do it. We didn’t have advanced warning. But, we did what we had to do and the teachers and the education system did a great job, but there is more we can do."
As New York begins to develop plans on how to eventually reopen K-12 schools and colleges, the state and the Gates Foundation will consider what education should look like in the future. The team effort will look into certain aspects of the education system, including:
- How can New York use technology to provide more opportunities to students no matter where they are?
- How can New York provide shared education among schools and colleges using technology?
- How can technology reduce educational inequality, including English as a new language students?
- How can New York use technology to meet educational needs of students with disabilities?
- How can New York provide educators more tools to use technology?
- How can technology break down barriers to K-12 and Colleges and Universities to provide greater access to high quality education no matter where the student lives?
- Given ongoing socially distancing rules, how can New York deploy classroom technology, like immersive cloud virtual classrooms learning, to recreate larger class or lecture hall environments in different locations?
The state and the Gates Foundation will bring together a group of experts to answer these questions.
"Let’s take this experience and learn what we can do differently and better with our education system in terms of technology and virtual education," Cuomo went on to say. "That is something we are actively working on through this process. So, it's not just about reopening schools. When we are reopening schools, lets open better schools and lets open a smarter education system."
News
Cuomo went on to say it is "about time" for the education system to be changed for the better.
"We all learned a lot about how vulnerable we are," he said. "Lets start talking about really revolutionizing education. It's about time."
Schools in New York, the state hardest hit by COVID-19, will remain closed for the rest of the academic year, Cuomo previously announced. To date, the state has reported 321,192 coronavirus cases and 19,645 deaths.
