EDUC 800 BLOG

Equity Issues and Educational Technology

Introduction

Equity is a buzz word in our culturally and financially diverse country, but the true victims of inequity, students in our education system, seem not to have a voice in the concerns as we flounder to find solutions to problems deeply seeded in the roots of our social hierarchy of order. Educational technology is no exception. In one way, inequity is related to social-economic, racial, or religious issues in terms of denying a group or individual of something that someone else has; in another, educational technology turns another direction to face the idea of inequity in opportunities that are not provided or allowed for students. Just because two educational institutions have the same tools and resources, it does not mean that the students in each have the same level of learning, usage, or access as another. Inequity in educational technology encompasses much more than that and teachers have a distinct role in its equitable influence. That influence is a key contributor to educational technology inequity and the prolonged lack of preparation necessary for students to enter a work force of uncertainty. Thus, there are basically two types of inequity in educational technology: the haves vs. the have nots and the plight of those for whom the potential of these resources is masked.

The “Haves” vs. The “Have Nots”

To compete in a diverse society such as ours, students need mental, financial, problem-solving, and communication tools in order to have a chance at the worn-out concept of the American dream. Our educational system seems to mimic a social order that has been dominant in our existence as a nation from the start. In the past, even though social class was recognized and often used to define the people of our nation, change was occurring at a steady pace, and students in our school system probably had more choice than present today. Priding ourselves as a nation of acceptance and opportunity, students in the past may or may not have not only sought formal education after their K-12 experiences, but they also, in making the decision not to continue with their formal education, still had a chance to enter a field of trade and make a good living for themselves and their families. They had retirement and health benefits and lived comfortably as the world changed around them. They still had a chance, with the wage earned, to have the life that many sought as comfortable and perhaps even enviable. Though social class labels followed them into their careers, there was still more of a hope for opportunity and success.

Just two generations ago, I can claim family who “came over on the boat” looking for opportunity and the freedom to join a well-established culture vetted in acceptance. Those family members basically had nothing but the clothes on their backs and a hungry work ethic and were driven to establish themselves as citizens of a country that must have seemed exciting, inviting, and uplifting. They worked hard and stuck together with a strong pride that gave them the strength to carry the weight of merging cultures and language barriers. These family members were successful, insisting that each generation just go a little further, driving them to live out this dream that they were promised and that they worked so hard to attain.

But, something happened in the world around them. Technology became not only a concept buried deep in the professional world but also somewhat of a threat to a culture priding themselves on the work of their hands to get ahead. The artificial intelligence of the computer began to appear on the scene, taking over many of the mental functions once necessary for these persons’ chosen work to be done. Not only was the technology becoming a threat, but society was making it harder and harder financially for these persons to compete with others who were embracing, purchasing, and learning how to use this technology.

Today, the inequity continues. Students today born into recognized cultures of poverty and unacceptance find it difficult to make a place in even a more entrepreneurial world because they might lack certain skill sets that are necessary to succeed, but they are not the only ones who find themselves lacking the resources to support a fulfilling preparation for what is to come.

While lip service is given to the cause to fight inequity of technology in education, there are widening gaps between the worlds of the “haves” and “have-nots” and students who, for whatever reason, do not have access to using educational technology effectively or even having it available to them are left behind. Because of socio-economic and ethnic differences, many lack the resources availed to others.

As technology advances, this becomes more and more of an issue for those left behind. While technology is seen as a way to engage and encourage learners more than ever before, these students find themselves unprepared to compete later with students who have had greater opportunity.

Masking the Potential

Equity involves a deeper consideration than one involving monetary means or ethnic variances. It has to do with exposure and opportunity. At conferences after presenting, I often hear, "well...we could do those creative things if we had the money to buy all of these fancy tools." Tools are just one part of the picture. Students need variety and chances to learn how they function best. I use the example of two people keeping a calendar to stay organized and to keep on top of appointments and schedules. One person has a paper calendar and one uses an electronic calendar. Both are used successfully. Both persons are organized and are able to keep track of what is needed to make them feel and function as a professional; however, if the person using the paper calendar never has the opportunity to learn about an electronic calendar, how is that person to know that he/she wouldn't like it better or find it more fitting for them? In the same sense, if someone has always used an electronic calendar, how is that person to know and appreciate another's use of the paper calendar?

There are so many technology tool-infused activities that can be used with a classroom with only one computer, that there is no excuse for not exposing students to technology. Awareness and knowledge in this sense are extremely important. Students should be made aware of what exists in the world around them...not only that, but they should have an opportunity to expose themselves to tools and activities that are a part of the world of those students with whom they must someday compete in society. This happens regardless of a school or district’s financial status. Even teachers in well-funded and resource-rich schools do not seize the opportunity to provide technology activities that their students will need to develop their 21^st century social capital.

Many teachers choose to use/not use/consider educational technology based on whether or not they feel comfortable using it. Some are afraid of using tools that their students may know more about than they do. But, “…it’s our responsibility to weave technology into students’ work in the classroom the same way technology is increasingly woven into every aspect of their lives beyond school” (Tucker 2016, p. 87). Students must have the opportunity to learn technology literacy to succeed beyond the classroom, and that can only happen if teachers are willing to look beyond their own bias and consider the needs of their students. Tucker (2016) says, “If we don’t find ways to put technology into our students’ hands, they’ll leave our classrooms more disenfranchised than when they entered.” I would add that they need to consider the most beneficial technology and not only the most liked, easiest to use, or most economical choices.

Unfortunately, I believe that this type of thinking also enters into district discussions of purchasing educational technology. Sometimes the money is the issue; however, many times, I think decisions are made for the sake of the teacher instead of the student. Our technology departments tend to look at the integration of tools into the infrastructure and choose those more manageable than others instead of trying to consider the true needs of the students being serviced.

The Role of the Educator

I just returned from spending three days working with some of the most powerful educators I have met. I am fortunate to be included in a group of educators from around the nation who are developing a high-level curriculum for a teacher education training program for high school students to not only interest them in and encourage them in the area of education, but also to provide some solid background activities and knowledge to catapult them into the future world as quality educators.

While we are creating this amazing set of tools for these students, (and I know that there will be many iterations along the way, so this topic could very well be addressed in future plans), I worry that we are concentrating too much on schools with the resources to provide this rich opportunity for students. Many cost considerations will be considered, and it is my hope that in the future, even small and/or rural schools and districts can be provided this service in some way, even if virtually. I know that there are passionate, driven students in those environments who are not getting the support they need to enter higher education as future educators. By support, I do not mean that they are not surrounded by superior teachers who have modeled passion and the fantastic techniques of great teaching but rather that in an age where so many of us are connected in collaborative communities, they are not connecting with others their age who have the same desires and interests. These students need to have access to the same quality materials as others! I believe in the power of networking, and I think that this, in intentional practice, can do a lot to provide alternatives to assist in the issues with equitable opportunities!

Teacher Preparation

One area in which I think we could work to improve equity would be in professional development. So often we focus on student learning, which is the most important part of education; however, we tend to get away from the steps that truly make this happen for all students. Teacher professional development is at the heart of finding ways for students to learn in customized, organized, and effective ways. We can spend all the time we want on "assessment," but if we don't train our teachers to provide the best opportunities for students to learn according to their own styles and abilities, we have missed the boat. I agree with the points made in the following article: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-quality-professional-development-teachers-matters-ben-johnson which basically states just that. “Being concerned about student learning and child poverty are laudable concerns, but true educators reject the premise that students struggling with poverty cannot learn as well as middle- and upper-income students. Both of these related issues should not be the focus of educators. The undeniable truth is that exceptional teaching inspires exceptional learning, and that can be helpful when it comes to addressing the cycle of poverty afflicting some of our students “ (Johnson 2014).

Another important aspect, I believe, is modeling. Teachers should be models not only in the classroom but also in their professional lives as examples of being life-long learners and contributors to society. Teachers who practicing networking and collaboration on a global level for students to see make a huge impact on the students' abilities to become their own self-advocates for learning later in their careers. Seeing the process of constant learning and exposure to new things and the flexibility to recognize and embrace new ideas helps students to become the type of citizens, both academically, personally, and professionally that we want them to be.

Working on the Bias

To discuss equity in education in terms of educational technology, we have to go much deeper. The academic roots that guide the use of that technology are set securely in the lack of cultural awareness and non-recognition of bias in our educational system. I listen to a lot of TED talks, and I remembered two, on the subject of equity, that have different views of how it can be addressed; however, both discuss issues in our educational system which need to be changed to provide that desired even playing field for all students.

Dorinda Carter Andrews, a professor of education at Michigan State University, states her view in a TED talk entitled, "The Consciousness Gap in Education," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOrgf3wTUbo. In this presentation, she discusses racism and other biases as undercurrents that destroy equity in education for students. She encourages schools to take hold of their professional development opportunities to provide platforms for teachers to share and discover their own biases that affect their instruction in the classroom. Knowingly or unknowingly, teachers determine content and readiness many times based on their own personal beliefs and cultural backgrounds. Professor Andrews even gave a personal example of a time that she believes she was academically remediated rather than academically challenged because of her race and because she talked in a slow, Southern accent that she thinks tagged her with a particular cultural label because the teacher had no experience in practice with her culture or race. She went on to say that many educators are afraid to voice such things because they fear that this admission might be a mark on their professional abilities and/or reputation, affecting their evaluations or employment. But, she contends, these discussions must become a part of the educational training of teachers and other academic professionals if equity is truly something to occur.

This really hit home with me, because, ironically, in working recently with a group of teachers collectively designing curriculum, some of the teachers did not want to include some of the exercises created because they felt that they might be too extreme in recognizing or indicating bias. Listening to Professor Andrews verified to me that she has hit on a very critical point in looking to educating educators on cultural bias to help with the concept of equity with students.

Another TED talk took a different approach but was just as interesting to me. Ken Grover, a high school principal, presented "The Best Equity in Education is Personalization."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iujqRi4xgw0) In his discussion, he emphasized the idea of "choice" for students...that giving them choices, from the time they would arrive at school to what they decided to study on any given day and time, would help students to work to their best potential and excel at their own academic pace, allowing them to be given an equal chance by giving them options to learn the way they learn best and to identify and maximize what they personally need to be successful. Remarkably, exit scores and graduation rates have improved with the personalized system he is proposing and has implemented.

Just as giving students varied tools to help them maximize their academic experiences is necessary to differentiate for many determining factors, the idea of going a step further and personalizing their entire educational experience seemed intriguing.

The Role of Social Media and Social Capital

One way that we can tackle equity issues is to look to widely used and easily accessible social media tools to help to develop students’ social capital. There is further discussion about the "experience" of students and how social media and other things have altered the university experience in terms of community building and the idea of social capital. I thought this was interesting as presented in a recent article discussing the part Facebook has in just that for university students (Aleman 2013). In a discussion about how something like Facebook can be a vehicle for developing social capital, the article’s author turned to Dewey’s views of learning and society. “ Dewey’s pragmatic metaphysics had established that as a democratic society, America’s central mission was to provide opportunities for individuals through which they could realize individual potential “ (Aleman 2013). With this, Dewey believed that American society would flourish. “In the 21^st century, America flourishes online. Online social media are part of the American experiential landscape now” (Aleman 2013).

This, in a way, is a good point of my discussion on equity. If things like Facebook can be considered as contributing factors in the social capital development for students, why do we not expose students earlier to the etiquette involved in using social media effectively for a purpose and talk to them about the friends they accept, the ones that they don't, the ones that they should block, etc. We shy away from such topics in a school environment and then just expect students to behave appropriately. Going in a related direction, students who do not have the access of others and never have the experience of learning to use such a tool, are at an extreme disadvantage compared to others. This is not to say that Facebook is by any means a gold standard of teaching digital citizenship, but it is just one more example of something that is not available to students who are kept away from access in our 21st century, something that forces them to struggle to catch up and perhaps not make educated decisions on use when it becomes available to them.

I am a true believer that technology is not the right learning tool or communication tool for everyone, but students should be exposed to the possibilities of its power. Leaving them out of the mix with technologies, including social media, simply widens the equity gap.

Closing Comments

Dealing with inequities in our nation is nothing new, but in the past, what normally comes to mind is the lack of equity for socio-economic and ethnic groups suppressed by others. In our 21^st century, a new type of inequity has developed, and it is one of masked opportunities in terms of timely resources. Technology has taken on an authoritative role in our society, and those who succeed seem to have a handle on how and when to use technology resources for the development of new ideas and methods of operation. While we still deal with inequity in terms of what resources are provided for students in our schools based on cost and location, we have to recognize that we have a new inequity with which we must deal. All students deserve to be provided access to technology resources and instruction around those resources to carry them into the competitive world of our 21^st century. Those not given such opportunities will surely feel steps behind as they proceed in their futures. Providing professional development for teachers and others is one monumental step in the right direction in dissolving and equalizing these gaps. Providing ways for students to develop their social capital for their own success and their contributions to our nation is not an option but an obligation.

References

The Best Equity in Education is Personalization. (2015, October 21). Retrieved October 2, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iujqRi4xgw0

Aleman, A. M. (2013, June 17). Is Facebook the 21st Century College Student’s “Great Community”? Retrieved October 27, 2016, from http://21stcenturyscholar.org/

Johnson, B. (2014, September 16). Why Quality Professional Development for Teachers Matters. Retrieved November 5, 2014, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-quality-professional-development-teachers-matters-ben-johnson

Tawfik, A. A., Reeves, T. D., & Stich, A. (2016). Intended and Unintended Consequences of Educational Technology on Social Inequality. TechTrends, 60(6), 598-605. doi:10.1007/s11528-016-0109-5

The consciousness gap in education - an equity ... - YouTube. (2014, March 10). Retrieved October 2, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOrgf3wTUbo

Tucker, C. (2016, November). Access: Let's Get Creative. Educational Leadership, 74(3), 87-88.

Wolter, D. (2016, November). The Opportunity Gap in Literacy. Educational Leadership, 74(3), 30-33.