It's time to Re-Focus Integrating Technology Around the Achievement of ALL Students
By Jamie Averbeck
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A few weeks ago two very different items showed up in my email and Twitter feed, along with some professional reading/learning that inspired this blog and pushed me to reflect on the work I have ahead.
As a Wisconsinite, this has been a trying winter. We have had multiple snow days and late start days, which prompted a lot discussion around how we make up instructional minutes. In fact, there was so much concern that our state Department of Instruction created guidelines for districts to make up the minutes virtually. About the same time these guidelines came out, the blog “It’s Time Edtech Conferences Stopped Ignoring Equity and Race” by Ken Shelton and Matt Hiefield in EdSurge showed up in my Twitter feed. What they had to say challenged me to reframe my thinking about our work through an equity lens. I have also been re-reading “Learning by Doing” by DuFour, Dufour, Eaker, Many and Mattos, and have been watching a lot of PLC videos. Now I feel I have a little Mike Mattos sitting on my shoulder constantly asking, does ALL mean ALL?
So that’s where I am at. In a time professionally where the evolution of 1:1 computers has led us to a place where virtual minutes are now viewed as equal to brick and mortar minutes, I am questioning the equity of it all, (or perhaps Mike Mattos is questioning it from his comfortable seat on my shoulder. :)
Like many of you, I’m trying to shrink the achievement gap of our students. I want ALL of our students to succeed and have equitable opportunity to do so. In my experience, the students that many of us see on the wrong end of the achievement gap tend to have other factors contributing to the hurdles they face. This list includes poverty, mental illness, transiency, etc., a list that schools typically can’t control.
If ALL means ALL, we need to reframe and reflect on this...
What are the impacts of virtual learning from an equity standpoint, specific to the achievement gap?
What are the impacts of virtual learning from an equity standpoint, specific to the achievement gap?
Let's look at the following scenario:
- School is cancelled due to a blizzard and a virtual learning day is announced.
- Close your eyes and think about the diverse home life situations your students have. From an equity standpoint, are some students going to have different opportunities, responsibilities, and a different environment than others that might lead to success or failure to “Virtually Learn”.
- The high school student who has a Chromebook but is now expected to play parent to his/her younger siblings while mom/dad is working.
- The student who doesn't have internet at home, but is expected to keep up with a digital learning day and travels to the library or a local establishment with free WiFi, when we specifically closed schools because it was deemed too dangerous to travel.
Does ALL mean ALL?
In my opinion, “virtual learning” (the kind designed to replace brick and mortar learning) more than likely will actually grow the achievement gap. We can work on providing students equitable access to devices and the internet, but providing an equally suitable environment is out of our control. It seems counter-productive, doesn’t it? Consider the time and effort that goes into preparing a virtual learning opportunity that, by design, will widen the gap we are trying to shrink.
We need to rethink the role of technology in our schools. 1:1 initiatives were never about replacing teachers; they were about providing equitable access. We need to focus on extending and supporting classroom instruction, not replacing it. Let’s follow the lead of Shelton and Hiefeld and ask, “How has integrating technology in our district affected the achievement gap?” This is a huge question, so I think we need to bring the scope and focus of our device use back to the brick and mortar. When we focus on what is essential for our students to learn (Mattos), let’s follow that up with “How can we leverage technology to help ALL students learn what is essential to be successful?” or look internally and ask “Do any of our current practices around learning what is essential, negatively impact the achievement gap? If so, what role did technology use play in the impact?”
I want to firmly state that I am a believer in blended learning and 1:1 initiatives. It is critical, though, that we all understand these programs are continuing the learning begun in the classroom--not replacing it. Re-reading this blog, I realize that it is a reflection full of questions, not a list full of how-to’s. Maybe that is because we don’t necessarily have an easy answer for solving the achievement gap, or maybe it’s because evaluating the equity consequences of past or current practice makes us uncomfortable. We need to re-orient our thinking and practice to:
- Re-focus around the essential universal teaching and learning that happens within our brick and mortar everyday for ALL students to achieve.
- Re-evaluate how technology is used in classroom to leverage what is essential for ALL students to be successful.
- Re-visit the purpose of 1:1 initiatives around extending and supporting classroom instruction for ALL, not replacing the instruction.
This is our charge for our work going forward. Moving the technology from potentially growing the achievement gap to supporting equitable opportunity, ensuring that ALL means ALL.
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