After what we have experienced over the last two years, one thing is certain: education and school will never be the same.

Our forced shift to remote and/or hybrid learning in schools because of the pandemic taught us all much about technology, teaching, and change. In many ways, it exposed very real cracks in the foundation upon which our systems are built. In other ways, we found new opportunities for learning and community building that will profoundly influence our work into the future.

But perhaps our most profound learning was about learning itself. As we adults attempted to navigate the uncertainty and chaos that this crisis (and others) brought, the most important lesson of this moment is the reminder that deep and powerful learning only happens when it’s relevant, real-world, collaborative, driven by inquiry and passion, and shared transparently.

Unfortunately, that's not what learning in most classrooms looks like.

In this ebook written by BIG Questions Institute co-founders Will Richardson and Homa Tavangar, we suggest that now is the perfect time to ask whether the learning environments our students need today are the same as the ones schools offered them pre-pandemic. And that this is no time to go back to a "normal" which in many ways wasn't all that great to begin with.

Instead, we must start by revisiting some of the fundamental underpinnings of our work with students in schools. We must start with nine urgent questions that will recenter and recalibrate our work going forward.

In the book, you'll find activities, resources, and strategies that will help your school community deeply interrogate each of these questions. And when you download, you'll get an invite to the new BQI Community where we can continue the conversations and the work together.

We stand at an inflection point in education. To move forward, we need to take stock of who we are now, and what we might become in the future. Let this ebook be your guide.