2-Keynote: What Will Remain After the Pandemic?

While we are all anxious to get back to teaching and working on campus, it is unlikely that we will go back completely to the pre-pandemic ways given the enormous disruption we are living through. I interviewed more than thirty MIT faculty members about teaching and working during the pandemic, and these interviews gave hints of what we might expect will remain once we begin teaching face-to-face again. While adoption of technology naturally played an important role, I found even more striking a fundamental shift in the faculty's attitude toward students and teaching. I believe that this will have a deep and lasting impact beyond the pandemic.