Lesson 1

Activity 1 Digital Equity Survey. This is the introductory assignment for the course module of Global Digital Citizenship. Digital Equity is concerned with leveling out any inconsistencies and the lack of empathy that arise from people. Also, digital equity becomes a problem when not all learners have access to the same digital tools that would be needed to be competitive in the 21st century classroom. For this activity, participants will use questions from a short survey to create an original survey so that they can administer it to learn about how digital equity can impact some of their own students. They will appreciate being attentive to the needs and learn to make adjustments for learners who might have difficulty accessing technology.

Another reason for creating this activity is to teach about accessibility. Accessibility issues can impact the learning of students with disabilities when they encounter difficulty in utilizing one or more of their senses. For example, a student may have vision impairments and not be able to read the text on screen. Knowledge of assistive technologies to provide an audio component to a lesson will take care of some of the accessibility issues encountered in the learning environment.

Instructions: This is an ice-breaker activity and requires students to form into small groups. Once you have formed small groups you will discuss an issue related to digital equity.

1. Participants will gain background information on Digital Equity from using information found at the PS 101 in NYC school. Click on the link. Go to the page for the Digital Equity information at this website.

2. Read the information about the PS 101 Brooklyin Digital Equity Family Questionnaire. As you read you will see a link to the questionnaire. Click on the link and read through the questionnaire.

3. Take notes on a provided notes sheet which is also linked. Click to download a copy. On this sheet jot down your ideas as they relate to learning about digital equity. You will be using this information to create a survey. Later on you can address how you will use the survey with your own students. Remember you want to understand how digital equity can pose a problem for some of your learners who may not have access to technology when you choose to use it before administering the digital equity survey.

4. Choose three to five of the questionnaire items which you will use to create the survey that can be issued to your learners to determine any issue they might encounter prior to your use of new technology in the classroom.

5. Form small teams and then go to Google Forms to create a short survey.

6. Once your surveys are created, they can be posted in Padlet.

7. Included resource for this lesson. This is a video that shows you how a teacher can use the application Padlet to create collaborative assignments.

8. An additional link with information on Digital Equity.

9. The assessment for this lesson is an Authentic and Project-based learning

Assessments aligned to Lesson Objectives

Objective: For participants to identify students access or lack thereof of access to technological tools, media, or high-speed access.

Related activity: Given an existing survey, participants will brainstorm to create survey items needed to administer a short survey.

Assessment: Participants will participate in an authentic assessment. They will need to collect real data by administering their survey and creating a report of the results. They will create a Google Slide presentation that is entitled, "Solutions to Bridge the Digital Divide". They will identify the critical access areas in their slides and provide solutions.

They can extend this assessment by using a digital portfolio to showcase their slides or by creating a powerful Infographic using a web 2.0 tool like Canva.

The Americans with Disabilities Act

Title III (Public Accommodations)

Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations and in Commercial Facilities

This title prohibits private places of public accommodation from discriminating against individuals with disabilities. Examples of public accommodations include privately-owned, leased or operated facilities like hotels, restaurants, retail merchants, doctor’s offices, golf courses, private schools, day care centers, health clubs, sports stadiums, movie theaters, and so on. This title sets the minimum standards for accessibility for alterations and new construction of facilities. It also requires public accommodations to remove barriers in existing buildings where it is easy to do so without much difficulty or expense. This title directs businesses to make "reasonable modifications" to their usual ways of doing things when serving people with disabilities. It also requires that they take steps necessary to communicate effectively with customers with vision, hearing, and speech disabilities. This title is regulated and enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice.

More information and events related to ADA Title III (Public Accommodations).

Title IV (Telecommunications)

This title requires telephone and Internet companies to provide a nationwide system of interstate and intrastate telecommunications relay services that allows individuals with hearing and speech disabilities to communicate over the telephone. This title also requires closed captioning of federally funded public service announcements. This title is regulated by the Federal Communication Commission.

More information and events related to ADA Title IV (Telecommunications).

Creating Access for All

In this section of the course, we discussed issues of equity. Accessibility is also another issue associated with Standard 5.1. In this lesson, you completed an activity pertaining to digital equity. If you noticed, there was a podcast accompanying that lesson. I wanted share with you additional resources that you can use to accommodate learners who may have challenges when trying to access the course content.

There are now Text to Speech applications available on the web that would allow a person to take text and turn it into an MP3 audible format for listening. Another feature that these applications promote is that they are universally-designed for any consumer. So you might use one of these applications so that you can listen to a speech that you created. Sometimes young children need to learn pronunciations. These apps could help with that too.

Interactions and Assessment for this Activity

The first type of interaction in this activity involves learners interacting with the content in an ice-breaker activity. Prior to this activity, they participated in a site navigation and as such participated in learner-interface interactions. In this lesson, they have been provided with explicit written instructions so that they can easily read and understand in clear written language how to proceed with finding the assignment resources. For learners who might need an auditory assistive aid, I have included a podcast of the lesson instructions so that they can listen to the instructions and be able to locate the lesson materials and complete the activity.

Sample of completed survey