Emerging Innovations and Vocabulary
The efforts of the 1950’s and 1960’s to land a person on the moon brought about new vocabulary, innovations, and a sense of pride in the accomplishments of our country when tasked with a seemingly insurmountable challenge. “Blast 0ff,” “unmanned,” “shuttle,” “flyby,” “earthbound,” “astronaut,” “spacecraft,” “soft landing,” “mission control,” and “lift-off” are familiar terms to those who lived through or past the 1960’s but were either unknown or uncommon to generations who came before that point in time. Innovations, including fireproof clothing, photovoltaic cells, wireless headsets, camera phones, memory foam, dust busters, ear thermometers, the computer mouse, and scratch-resistant glasses are derived from space travel technologies. Can the same be said for new vocabulary and innovations resulting from the pandemic?
Surely, “community spread,” “asymptomatic,” “super-spreader,” “flattening the curve,” “hand hygiene,” “social distancing,” PPE,” “N95,” herd immunity,” Zoomed,” covidiot,” “new normal,” and “blursday” are either newly created or newly popular. My poor grandfather, who passed before the onset of COVID-19, would be befuddled if I told him to “mask-up,” use the “hand sanitizer,” and observe “social distancing” but what innovations can be attributed to our efforts to get through this global pandemic?
The most obvious innovation resulting from the pandemic, of course, is the development of a vaccine in such a short amount of time. Numerous articles have been written on the topic and all give credit to the unprecedented global cooperation, existing experience with similar viruses, advances in genomic sequencing, and the resources applied that have enabled companies to work without assuming the financial risk of manufacturing in advance of clinical trials. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines themselves are a new class of vaccines – m-RNA vaccines, which trigger our own cells to synthesize proteins associated with the virus. Our immune system responds to these proteins as it would to the virus. This trigger of the immune response is then ready, should we be exposed to the real virus. The safety of these vaccines is not only assured through clinical trials but also through our understanding of how they work. Other medical innovations include low-cost ventilators, cleaning processes for PPEs, and monoclonal antibody treatments.
Restaurants and retail establishments have also applied creativity to operations during the pandemic. Curbside pickup may have been introduced prior to 2020, however, their proliferation was accelerated as those aimed to reduce their exposure by opting out of in-person shopping or eating. Who would have thought that fine restaurants would promote and benefit from take-out service? And let’s not forget outdoor dining in February …in Rhode Island.
Also in short order, new innovations have emerged for instruction. Would we ever have thought we’d be able to virtually assess the work of our youngest learners, as we do with the help of a program called SeeSaw? At the time of the Future Search, we envisioned added positions for instructional coaches, however, the pandemic forced us to consider options involving virtual coaches and these have now replaced our need for full, in-person positions. Assessments, as well, have evolved over the last year. Educators are no longer able to use “Googleable” questions on assessments given to virtual students. This year, professional development has focused on developing assessments that require that students apply their knowledge in novel ways. Each of these innovations will carry over to life after the pandemic.
Our hope, as well, is that, like in the 1960’s, there will be a sense of pride in the accomplishments of our country and our schools as we work to overcome this seemingly insurmountable challenge.
Information used to write this blog post was collected from a variety of sources, including articles on the development of the vaccine: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-did-we-develop-a-covid-19-vaccine-so-quickly and https://www.houstonmethodist.org/blog/articles/2020/dec/how-was-the-covid-19-vaccine-developed-so-fast/ and https://news.uchicago.edu/story/how-were-researchers-able-develop-covid-19-vaccines-so-quickly ; and articles on innovations stemming from space exploration: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/07/08/space-race-inventions-we-use-every-day-were-created-for-space-exploration/39580591/ and https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/20-inventions-we-wouldnt-have-without-space-travel .
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