Closing the Gap

Digital Equity Strategies for the K-12 Classroom

Regina Schaffer, Nicol R. Howard, Sarah Thomas

• Publisher: International Society for Technology in Education
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781564847157
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Technology

Three experts on equity and technology offer concrete, evidence-based strategies for classroom teachers to move toward digital equity in K12 settings. Closing the Gap is an ISTE book series designed to reflect the contributions of multiple stakeholders seeking to ensure that digital equity is achieved on campuses, in classrooms, and throughout education. In this series, authors Nicol R. Howard, Sarah Thomas, and Regina Schaffer offer historical and philosophical insights while exploring challenges and solutions unique to teacher preparation programs, pre-service and in-service teachers, and instructional coaches.The second title in the Closing the Gap series, this book includes:

• Examination of digital equity and the "problem of practice" for teachers and coaches
• Strategies for connecting the ISTE Educator and Student Standards to practice
• Discussion of key challenges facing teachers in today's classrooms, such as access, connectivity, limited resources, digital divide, and the homework gap
• Research-based vignettes from teachers who have encountered and conquered some of the challenges addressed in the book, and from edtech coaches who have implemented equity-centered innovative professional development

This book helps teachers address the challenges of teaching in the digital age, providing positive examples and recommendations for achieving digital equity in their classroom communities. Audience: K-12 educators, teacher educators, education leaders

Chapter 1

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT DIGITAL EQUITY

As devices and increased bandwidth have improved, we are now seeing the next great equity challenge: the way educators use technology with their students. An emerging definition of digital equity now involves access to devices, access to broadband, and access to teachers qualified to offer technology-powered opportunities to drive learning in the classroom.

—Hiefield & Carter, 2018

Do you remember the first time you ever used a computer for learning new content? Did you have your own device, or did you go to the local library? What about your Wi-Fi connectivity? More than likely, the answers to these questions vary from reader to reader just as they differ amongst K–12 students today. Challenges related to device access, bandwidth, and Wi-Fi connectivity persist, yet these are not the only concerns related to digital equity in K–12 classrooms. Digital equity is also inclusive of the selection and application of digital tools in teaching and learning. To that end, we are long overdue for change beyond simply the distribution of more devices (Howard, Thomas, & Schaffer, 2018).

Digital equity is not a new term, yet differing beliefs and practices continue to emerge related to this topic. In the first book of this series, Closing the Gap: Digital Equity Strategies for Teacher Prep Programs, the authors addressed how researchers have defined digital equity as “equal access and opportunity to digital tools, resources, and services to increase digital knowledge, awareness, and skills” (Davis, Fuller, Jackson, Pittman, & Sweet, 2007, p.1). Digital equity is most visible when everyone, including teachers, coaches, and K–12 students, have adequate access to technologies for teaching and learning and when those digital teaching and learning experiences are well-designed and delivered. The mere replication of paper-based lessons via easily accessible digital tools is not enough, however; we must strive for better and richer experiences by supporting those who provide them to students.

When digital technologies are used in instruction, teaching and learning experiences still differ between classrooms based upon numerous factors including, but not limited to, teacher beliefs and their prior experiences with learning and using new technologies. When teachers have had positive and interactive experiences learning a new tool, their educational application of that tool will produce far more positive experiences for their students as well. Teachers who begrudgingly adopt a new digital tool are less likely to feel comfortable using it with their students. A teacher’s comfort level with using new technologies can ultimately be traced back to their own learning experiences. We’ll discuss this in more depth in Chapter 3, but we raise the issue now to highlight how gaps in teachers’ tech knowledge are also a variable to consider when addressing digital inequities.

We can aim to ensure K–12 students have access to devices, Wi-Fi, and digital tools; however, if students do not have a teacher qualified to use technologies equitably, then closing the digital equity gap is less likely to occur. Coach and teacher preparedness for dealing with digital inequities on K–12 campuses is essential for the future success of K–12 students. To address the ongoing issues associated with digital equity, it is important to carefully consider the complexity of the issues and whether they need urgent attention or long-term strategic planning efforts. Whether or not it is determined that any given digital inequity requires immediate resolution, a process for determining the plan for solving the problem is essential.

Problem of Practice

Similar to other areas a school or school district may identify as a core focus, issues related to digital equity can be considered a problem of practice. Digital inequities are a problem of practice because of their instructional impacts, directly observable issues (e.g., poor Wi-Fi connectivity), potential for improvement, and connections to a larger strategic plan. There are a few essential steps to closing the digital equity gap that are vital as you address your problem of practice. The goal for this chapter is to support you with navigating this process of identifying, analyzing, and planning for teaching and learning around your own or your district’s problem of practice related to digital equity. We will break down each phase of the process in an effort to help you facilitate this same process related to identifying and addressing digital inequities on your own campus. Why is it important to identify and address problems of practice? Focusing on solving a clear problem of practice can lead to cultural changes and student success. Let’s walk through the process using some examples of complex and urgent digital equity concerns that require teachers and coaches to consider how they will ensure equity for all.

Who Is on Your Team?

Before identifying the problem of practice, you should highly consider approaching the challenges with a team or determine a group of colleagues to at least bounce around a few solution-based ideas. For example, if you are a teacher, you could seek out your technology coach, a teacher on special assignment (TOSA), a peer educator, and even students on your campus. Bouncing around ideas may be as simple as a holding a face-to-face meeting in which your team comes together one time to brainstorm the issues and possible solutions. You could even follow-up with a shared space for collecting additional afterthoughts using a digital platform (e.g., Padlet, Google Docs). Whether you meet face-to-face or online, part of your team’s work will involve unpacking the challenges to better understand:

• The root cause of any given issue

• What can be solved through a shift in digital equity strategies (e.g., full 1:1 access)

• What steps your team can take toward supporting K–12 students as well as each other

A team approach, whenever possible, may potentially lead to schoolwide improvements and the identification of issues that broadly impact a campus—even when the initial general assumption was that only one classroom was impacted by digital inequities. If you are addressing a problem of practice alone, you may find support by leaning on your larger community of practice, also known as your professional learning network (PLN), which we discuss further in Chapter 3.

Identifying the Specific Problem

When identifying the specific problem of practice, your team could take the brainstorm approach and lay out every digital equity challenge on the campus. Alternatively, one person could bring a key concern to the group. Although you may have picked up this book with one key concern on your mind, take a moment to think again about your role in education and your own personal digital equity challenges. Whether you are a K–12 teacher or a coach, you are likely facing a digital inequity on your campus at varying degrees. Perhaps it is an inequity related to poor Wi-Fi connectivity or outdated operating systems. Maybe you lack enough devices to work efficiently with students or colleagues on a project. Obvious gaps may even exist in the digital knowledge between teachers and students, coaches and teachers, or peer teachers and students. There could be inequities evident between classrooms due to the varying uses of digital tools for teaching and learning, such as one teacher using technology for drill-and-kill practice exercises and another using digital tools for collaboration and deeper learning.

Allow the results of this fresh brainstorming to help inform your process for identifying the most pressing digital inequity in your classroom or on your campus. Remember that this stage of the process may begin with your own thoughts, yet it is important to solicit the perspective of other key stakeholders (e.g., colleagues, students) to prioritize the challenges that require immediate attention. Your team may decide to take a divide-and-conquer approach by having every member identify one challenge to address, or you may decide to tackle them as a group, one challenge at a time. Whichever approach the team takes, you must analyze the problem of practice in order to appropriately plan for teaching and learning.

Analyzing the Problem

After your team identifies a problem of practice as the one challenge you will tackle, it is time to carefully analyze that problem. For example, if your team determines that the most pressing challenge is the disparity between how digital tools are used between classrooms for teaching and learning, begin to unpack the issue as a team and discuss the root causes. Key data points should be utilized to make this determination, such as student surveys and parent feedback, or observable differences in teaching with technology and the acquisition of new knowledge when using technology for teaching and learning.

The goal in this process is to determine which problems can be solved through a shift in digital equity strategies; the how occurs during the next phase. While analyzing the problem of practice, your team should continue to consider all of the key stakeholders (e.g., students, parents, colleagues) in order to prepare to develop a clear plan for teaching and learning. Analyze the problem from the perspective of each stakeholder to best understand the root causes of the issue. In the example above about the disparities between how digital tools may be used between classrooms, your team might examine the impact on both student learning and teacher autonomy. Or one of your team members, likely the coach, might be called upon to observe frequency and types of technology use in different classrooms for the team to compare and further analyze together. The team may discover that although the problem was labeled as a disparity in use, a closer look reveals that there is not actually a difference in how the tool is used, rather a difference in how often the tool is used and the root cause is the teacher’s discomfort managing the classroom when technology use is a variable. Once the problem has been analyzed and the root cause determined, your team is ready to plan for teaching and learning.

An Organizational Tool for Brainstorming and Analyzing

The International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) defines the design process as, “a systematic problem-solving strategy, with criteria and constraints, used to develop many possible solutions to a problem or to satisfy human needs and wants and winnow (narrow) down the possible solutions to one final choice” (n.d.). The organization has developed a twelve-step Engineering Design Process (EDP) for use in Grades 9–12, which Thomas (n.d.) repurposed as “Designing with Passion,” an activity for educators to develop a plan to attack their own problems of practice.

The activity uses Google Forms (bit.ly/DesignWithPassion) to guide you through the first six steps of the EDP: Define the problem, brainstorm possible solutions, research ideas/explore possibilities, specify constraints, consider alternatives, and select an approach. Once the form is completed, you will receive an email containing a Google Docs document with the information that was initially supplied, plus a section to address the final six steps of the process. This latter section includes places to add due dates and resources to guide you along the way. The Google Docs document is also added to a community database (databases.edumatch.org/designingwithpassion) where educators can go to search for similar plans to gain ideas on what to do or to find potential collaborators. A template of the document for private use is available at getconnected.edumatch.org/dwptemplate.

Planning for Teaching and Learning

Perhaps the assumption may be that this stage of the process is the fastest to maneuver, when in actuality now is when new questions and digital inequities emerge that you will explore and address. The beauty of this process is that we, all educators, already know careful planning for teaching and learning benefits students tremendously. We embrace the process. Acknowledging new inequities and seeking to answer emerging questions better prepares educators to meet the needs of all students. Working alongside a colleague, or with a team, will help, but this work can be done alone. For now, we will offer an example using a team approach. Continuing with the example scenario, your team might plan to connect coaches with teachers to support them with managing their classrooms during lessons that require 1:1 device distribution and the use of new digital tools. Or, your team might decide to offer teachers some professional learning that goes over new ways to manage tech-centered classrooms. Although it may feel like a long way to get to this final step, here is where your team potentially transforms education and empowers both students and teachers (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Instruction is an essential part of the equation to achieving digital equity. (Sketchnote by Nichole Carter.)

Proper planning for teaching and learning, after identifying and analyzing the problem of practice, cannot occur in isolation. In other words, this is an iterative process. Once the planning for teaching and learning stage of the cycle is complete, remember to continue collecting data, such as student and teacher reactions to the implementation of plan, to determine whether it may be necessary to revisit one of the stages in the process. Most importantly, remember to embrace the teamwork approach, acknowledging the importance of each group member: teachers, coaches, and campus leaders.

Educator Voices

What Can Happen When You Address the Problem of Practice

By Candy Coffey, Instructional Technology Coach

The present-day expectation of technology integration is to supplement, enrich, and facilitate 21st-century learning. In accordance with this is the need and desire of our students to have educational experiences with new technologies to prepare them for the future. My school embraced this ideology: At Palm Avenue Elementary School, which is located in the north end of San Bernardino, California, we developed a comprehensive action plan directly aligned to our school’s needs. Our plan not only budgeted school funds for a variety of devices, but also employed an expert leader to serve as an instructional technology coach and resource to students, teachers, staff, and the community.

The instructional technology coach’s responsibilities include offering consistent availability, mentoring teachers to provide support with instructional needs, sharing ideas, and demonstrating programs aligned with student achievement. These responsibilities are performed through weekly lessons in kindergarten through sixth-grade classrooms for fifty-minute sessions. In addition, monthly meetings are held to collaborate with lower-grade (kindergarten through third) and upper-grade (fourth through sixth) teachers separately with the intent to target their specific needs. Technology uses in classrooms across campus are shared via professional development meetings and highlighted in our weekly news broadcast. This sharing of ideas has served as a reminder of the useful application of technology and has resulted in generating heightened interest and use.

Initially, our expectation of the implementation process was not to have an overnight success; we knew results would take time and tremendous effort. Gradually, background knowledge was carefull...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• About ISTE
• About the Authors
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• Chapter 1: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT DIGITAL EQUITY
• Chapter 2: HOW MIGHT TEACHERS RESPOND TO THE CHALLENGES?
• Chapter 3: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING?
• Chapter 4: WHAT’S NEXT FOR ACHIEVING DIGITAL EQUITY?
• CONCLUSION
• REFERENCES
• INDEX
• Back Cover