The Digital Divide of Use - Promising Practices to Close the Gap

In week 5 of EDUC 5353 we are asked to select a couple of promising practices we identified in our literature review to help close the gap we identified for our community.

I've selected the Digital Divide of Effective Use of Technology by Teachers and Students to focus on during this course. During the literature review, there were many promising practices identified, but here I will focus on the two I feel have the best fit for my community: 1) the "Hacking Leadership" framework developed by Zoller, Lahera, & Jhun (2009), and 2) the 2017 National Education & Technology Plan (NETP).

The Hacking Leadership framework has promise for our community because it will allow teachers and students to have a local impact on our own community while developing connections with community members and each other. They will learn to take all of the ideas that are presented and consider them from a variety of perspectives before deciding on a solution to be implemented. The NETP provides a great set of strategies to help connect the real-world learning of the Hacking Leadership framework with classroom content.

I believe the first steps we need to take would be to train our administrators and teachers on the NETP strategies and select a cadre to attend a Hacking Leadership training. Once the Hacking Leadership cadre has been trained, they can then share the methods they learned with the rest of the faculty. We can then use the Hacking Leadership framework to help each other best determine how to implement these strategies with our students and develop some lesson plans to try them with.

Our entire leadership team and all faculty members should be involved in this ultimately. However, it may be best to start with a few early adopter volunteers and a chunk of the administration and/or leadership team. We could ask one or two highly engaged parents to participate as well if funding allows. Once those participants have a good grasp on the strategies and how they might be implemented, the implementation plan can be rolled out to staff through professional development sessions - either in the summer, during the school year, or both. Once we begin implementing strategies it would be nice to receive feedback from teachers, students, and perhaps parents.

These are first-steps to be implemented in the hopes of increasing the effective use of technology by both students and teachers in our middle school community.

Citations

Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education: 2017 National Education Technology Plan Update [PDF]. (2017, January). U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved February 3, 2019, from https://tech.ed.gov/files/2017/01/NETP17.pdf

Zoller, K., Lahera, A. I., & Jhun, J. K. (2019). A model for addressing adaptive challenges by merging ideas:  How one program designed a hacking framework to address adaptive challenges and discovered the ecotone. Crossing the Bridge of the Digital Divide:  A Walk with Global Leaders, p. 95-112.

The Digital Divide - Factors, Use, and Ability

The Digital Divide

In week 2 of EDUC 5353 we are asked to 1) identify the "dividing factors" impacting our community members, 2) consider the "use" of technology by community members, 3) and consider the "cans and cannots" in our community.

Dividing Factors

Students at DeWitt Perry Middle School are predominantly Hispanic and economically disadvantaged, as shown in my previous post. So, socioeconomic status (SES) and ethnicity are certainly dividing factors to be considered for my community.
Other factors info: I don't have data on their parents' educational levels. Gender is fairly evenly distributed. I'm not sure of their parents' ages, but all of my students are of a similar age. All of my students live in the same geographic area, but their families are mainly from Central America. The mean household size is 5.6, with a median household size of 5, and with a range of 3 to 10 members.

"Use" of Technology

I polled my students about their access to and use of technology for other-than-school. These are the responses from 54 of my 121 students:

"What type(s) of device(s) do you have access to outside of school (other than your school-issued Chromebook)?"
96.1%  Mobile Device
60.9%  Laptop
49.0%  Tablet
23.5%  Desktop
**5.6% of students indicated they had no access to other devices at all.

"Do you have internet access at your house?"
85.2%  Yes
11.1%    Sometimes
3.7%    No

"What are your top 3 uses of internet for non-school activities?"
86.3%  Videos
60.8%  Games
56.9%  Social Media
47.1 % Texting/Messaging
41.7%  Music

"Do you do work for school at home?"
81.5%  Yes
18.5%  No

I was surprised at how many said they have access at home, since a common excuse I hear about why work wasn't done is, "I couldn't do my work because I didn't have internet." Another common excuse is, "My Chromebook ran out of battery."

Ability - "Cans and Cannots"

I did not poll my students about their parents' ability to use various technology devices. I do know that many of the parents that come to campus to use a computer need to have help translating pages to their native language. Once translated, they can usually operate the device with minimal assistance. I do feel there is a divide when it comes to mobile device versus laptop/desktop devices. It seems that more people know how to use apps on their mobile devices than know how to effectively use software on a laptop or desktop.

My Perspective

Any time I introduce a new app/piece of software to my students, they are eager to learn how to use it. Whether or not they continue using it partly depends on if its use is required for my class or another class, but also depends on how engaging it is. I've introduced several sites and apps to my students that they love to use when they finish other classwork - Khan Academy, BrainPop, Legends of Learning, Cool Math Games, Vocabulary.com, MedMyst, Code.org. There are also several sites and apps they only return to if required by an assignment - PHeT, HHMI, NewsELA. The fact that they're returning to sites and apps that are educational is encouraging.

I feel that if we provide more time and instruction on how to use educational sites we will have more students returning to them. In a recent professional development session, we were reminded that we are given time during the work day to collaborate, plan, and try new technology - it's not expected that we do it outside of our scheduled work day. If we expect our students to use a technology we must give them instruction and time to use it during the school day and not expect them to tackle it without teacher support when they're at home. To support their parents' learning, we can do something similar by providing a location and time for parents to receive instruction and have time to practice using technology while support is available.

Initially, I felt my Call to Action would be about ensuring access to the internet for all of my students because it seemed that was the primary issue. However, after polling my students I feel that since 85.2% of them have regular access, energies may be better spent on facilitating education on current technologies for both students and parents. For the 14.8% of students that don't have consistent access to the internet though, I would still like to find a possible solution. (Evidently I'm still a bit torn on which area to focus my energies currently.)

Citations

Defining The Digital Divide in my Community

EDUC 5353 - Week 1

For our Week 1 blog post in EDUC 5353, we are asked to introduce ourselves, make connections between readings, resources, and our community, and define the community we will focus our studies on for this course - Learning Technologies to Bridge the Digital Divide.

Introduction/About Me

My name is Haylee Carroll. I am currently an educator in Carrollton, TX, a suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth, and have been an educator for thirteen years. I've taught math, science, PE, health, and a variety of electives. I'm currently pursuing my a Master's in Education: Curriculum & Instruction - Educational Technology. This is my 2nd course in a series of ten.

The Digital Divide

The readings we were provided all focus on access (at home and/or at school) and use of technology (purpose and skill level) and the differences afforded to people based on location (urban or rural), age, gender, race/ethnicity, level of education (of parents for minors), and income. Van Dijk (2017) discusses how the digital divide was mainly an issue of physical access to a computer, software, and internet in the early years of digital divide research (1999-2002), and then transitioned more to an issue of how technology is used during daily life from 2005-2015. He uses the term "deepening divide" to describe this second level of the digital divide. Since most digital skill acquisition happens as a result of need and use of technology, if a user doesn't have access to current/relevant technologies they won't become skilled in its use. Van Dijk also found that those with higher education levels tended to use technologies more for work, career, and studying, while those with lower education levels tended to use technologies for entertainment, shopping, and messaging. 

KewalRamani, et al. (2018) reveal that physical access is increasing, with mobile device access is climbing faster than high-speed/broadband internet access. While lower-income families are making gains in having internet access, there was still a 33% gap in 2015 between those in the lowest income range and those in the highest income range, closing from a 51% gap in 2010. While Black and Hispanic families show the lowest access, it seems to be income that is the driving force to allowing access.

Turner-Lee (2018) focused on family location for her research, finding that those in more rural areas and with lower income have lower access. Again though, I feel that it connects back to income as the defining variable since people living more remotely tend to have lower incomes overall.  

I feel that if appropriate devices and high-speed internet access can be made more accessible, we will see an increase in technology use for educational purposes. Many people with mobile access only focus on using apps on their mobile devices - those tend to be for entertainment. Users with high-speed access tend to have access to a non-mobile device, desktop, laptop, or Chromebook and are more able to easily access educational information. Chromebooks provide an inexpensive platform to access high-speed internet. If we can make high-speed internet less expensive/more accessible, we can potentially help those in the lowest income levels close the gap in the "deepening divide" Van Dijk (2017) described.

My focus area for this course will include the campus/district where I currently teach 7th grade science - DeWitt Perry Middle School in Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District (C-FB ISD). We are located in a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex: Carrollton, TX. C-FB ISD spans parts of Dallas, Denton, and Collin counties. The Texas Education Agency report card provides the demographic and performance information that follows (2017–18 School Report Card 2018).

Student Population - 1,030

        Campus / District / State

• 96.4% / 95.5% / 95.7% Attendance Rate (2016-17)
• 79.7% / 56.0% / 52.4% Hispanic
• 8.2% / 11.5% / 4.4% Asian
• 6.6% / 12.9% / 27.8% White
• 3.2% / 16.4% / 12.6% African American
• 2.1% / 2.8% / 2.3% Two or More Races
• 0.2% / 0.3% / 0.4% American Indian
• 0.0% / 0.1% / 0.1% Pacific Islander
• 78.3% / 64.1% / 58.8% Economically Disadvantaged
• 45.7% / 29.3% / 18.8% English Learners
• 10.5% / 11.1% / 9.1% Special Education
• 7.0% / 15.8% / 16% Mobility

2018 Performance Rating

• Overall: Met Standard
• Student Achievement: Met Standard
• School Progress: Met Standard
• Closing the Gaps: Met Standard
• Distinctions Received in 7 of 7 categories: Academic Achievement in English Language Arts (ELA)/Reading, Academic Achievement in Mathematics, Academic Achievement in Science, Academic Achievement in Social Studies, Comparative Academic Growth, Comparative Closing the Gaps, and Postsecondary Readiness

Our campus is predominantly Hispanic and Economically Disadvantaged, and has over twice the percentage of English Learners as the state of Texas and over 50% more than C-FB ISD overall.

Community Profile 

The City of Carrollton claims a diverse local economy (City of Carrollton, TX) and boasts recognition in 19 different "Best of" and "Top of" type lists supported by local businesses, associations, and societies. While Carrollton holds several accolades that make it attractive to prospective residents, there is certainly a need felt by the large quantity of lowest socioeconomic status (SES) members - note 78.3% of Perry students mentioned above. 

Focus of Study

I plan to focus my Digital Divide study on the students served by the DeWitt Perry Middle School (DPMS) campus. In a previous course, EDUC 5373 - Innovative Leadership for the Digital Age Learning Environment, I focused my Technology Integration Plan on incorporating access to students of DPMS. I would like to continue my focus on the students I interact with every week and that we serve on my campus so I can help improve their quality of access. 

Citations

Human & Physical Resource Inventory

**I'm not sure how I managed to NOT post this with my initial Needs Assessment. I'm going to post it now, as my EDUC 5373 class is coming to a close. 

Technology Resource Inventory

As part of our Technology Needs Assessment, we also created a Resource Inventory. Again, I will focus on my campus for this initial information.

Human Resources

• On-campus Technology Specialist - responsible for device maintenance and repairs; may also assist with local connection issues
• Technology Integration Specialist - responsible for assisting teachers in small groups or one-on-one with selecting appropriate tools for instruction
• Digital Learning Project "Googler" - responsible for implementing Google's Digital Learning Project protocols to identify challenges, propose solutions, and implement strategies to close those gaps
• Librarian - responsible for cataloging technology devices and processing repair requests
• Teachers - responsible for designing curriculum and delivering instruction for their specific content areas
• Administrators - responsible for decisions about technology procurement
• Students - responsible for learning curriculum delivered by teachers and using technology to enhance and share that learning

Physical Resources

• Chromebooks - one per staff member and one per student
• Desktops - one per staff member and 4 computer labs (each with approximately 25 desktops)
• Document Cameras - one per teacher
• Interactive White Boards (IWB) - one per teacher
• Laptops - approximately 50
• iPads - approximately 50
• Calculators - approximately 350
• ProbeWare - 9 class sets

Reflection on Technology Integration for 21st Century Learners

As I complete my first graduate school course, my final assignment is a reflection about technology integration for 21st Century Learners. 

This course has certainly opened my mind to a broader view than my island of a classroom. I chose to develop a plan to integrate technologies into our whole campus.  I feel that my experiences in this course have better prepared me to discuss options and help implement a new technology integration on my campus. Diving into all the resources, professional development, planning, budgeting, collaboration, and assessment of the plan was a bit overwhelming at times but very educational. This process has shown me many of the intricacies that I had previously not even known to consider.

As a teacher, we frequently hear of a particular device or piece of software and wonder why our campus isn't using it. Now, I know that not only is cost a factor, but a long-term view has to be evaluated, as well as how much training it would take to implement. Since teachers need instruction and time to adequately plan, it's important to have enough time and resources to train teachers far enough in advance that they're comfortable using the technology and they have time to integrate it into their lessons. At the top of my list for successful technology integration: having engaging PD sessions with options that meet teachers' individual needs and allows time to practice and plan. We can also use this learning model for our teachers to guide instruction for our students - meeting their individual needs with the assistance of appropriate technologies and allowing time for them to practice and collaborate with their peers while their teachers provide guidance.


One piece of research I read by McKnight, et al., Teaching in a Digital Age: How Educators Use Technology to Improve Student Learning (2016), found six instructional strategies used by teachers when integrating technology:

1. communication and information management
2. direct instruction of content
3. access and accommodations
4. collaboration
5. research, exploration, and creativity
6. assessment and feedback 

These six strategies were found to be supported by five roles of teaching and learning:

1. improve access - This should allow students to have access to digital information anytime and anywhere and should differentiate their instruction to meet their level and needs.
2. enhance communication and feedback - This means timely feedback is given and instruction is adjusted to meet the needs of students. Multiple modes of communication can be used - email, chat, forum, face-to-face...
3. restructure teachers' use of time  - This transforms the teacher into a coach or guide instead of a source of information. Less direct instruction is needed and allows for more small-group and one-on-one discussion and assistance.
4. extend purpose and audience for student work - Students can now actively find information and share their creations with classmates and people around the world. Teachers that have their students write for a larger audience have found that their students seem to put more effort into their work, claiming that they want to look like they know what they're talking about.
5. shift teacher and student roles - Teachers shift to the role of facilitators instead of information sources and students shift to researchers and evaluators instead of consumers being spoon-fed information.

My take away from this article is that technology use without sound instructional methods embedded in lessons is just a digital babysitter. We must have sound pedagogy in place and support our learning objectives with technologies that are appropriate for the task to be completed. This is where collaboration is key. Nurturing our Professional Learning Communities and growing them to include sources from all around the globe can only give us access to more information and experiences that we can use in our daily instruction of students, which will benefit both us and our students.



Citation

Mcknight, K., O'malley, K., Ruzic, R., Horsley, M. K., Franey, J. J., & Bassett, K. (2016). Teaching in a Digital Age: How Educators Use Technology to Improve Student Learning. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 48(3), 194-211. doi:10.1080/15391523.2016.1175856

Technology Integration for Learning

Supporting the learning of teachers and students is the primary goal of technology integration in education. For our Week 5 post, I'm going to focus on providing answers to the prompts about teachers' professional learning.

Teachers' Professional Learning

What structures and practices are already in place in your community to support professional learning?

My campus & district already implement several practices that support the professional learning of educators. 

• Weekly PD on Thursdays given by peers; with a rotating schedule of literacy, AVID, technology, and a book study (Currently: Teach Like a Champion)
• Leadership committees - there are a variety to select from to join at the start of the year; at least 1 is required per teacher
• Summer PD with many choices for educators to select from
• Online PD to extend skills; most courses don't offer actual PD credits though
• Peer coaching
• Administrative support to investigate and implement new technologies

What practices show promise for adoption in your community to support professional learning?

• Teacher Technology Leaders - Some teachers have moved up to Digital Learning Specialist positions, but there aren't enough to have one on each campus. Allowing teachers to step into this role to have a person available throughout the day would be amazing!
• Getting feedback more often - either from peers or from administrators - would be helpful, especially for newer teachers. The more feedback we get, the more we can adjust our practices to improve learning.
• Learning Portfolios - Having teachers present a record at their summative conference of all the training they participate in throughout the year would be very revealing. Both the teacher and administrator would be able to reflect on the learning that happened and discuss what was effective and where there is more opportunity for growth.

Identify synchronous and asynchronous opportunities to develop or grow a professional learning community.

Synchronous - Many of these afford opportunities to grow your PLC face-to-face since you get to participate with people outside of your campus.

• Summer Training/PD Opportunities - the whole district participates
• Start/Mid-Semester PD Sessions - department & campus-level sessions
• Weekly PD - all participants share a planning time
• Committee Meetings - a mix of educators from the entire campus with a shared passion for the selected committee 

Asynchronous - While you can still grow your PLC with these, they require more effort to stay up-to-date due to their formats.

• Twitter - subscribe to content you are interested in; join live chats or participate after by responding to prompts; many great resources
• Webinar - can be done live, but some prefer to watch the playback so they can pause if needed; can still be involved with discussion after the fact
• Facebook Groups - a great way to build relationships with people; opportunities to join groups that have similar interests/goals
• Discussion Boards/Forums - easy to share and find information; many topics to choose from
• Blogs - a great way to see other perspectives and get feedback on ideas
• E-mail - can be used to communicate with one or more people; great for private discussions

How will you plan for successful professional learning activities and network development?

• Gather feedback from educators about what format and topics they'd prefer to learn about.
• Allow educators to choose what they attend, with the understanding that they must attend something and know they will walk away with tools to increase learning.
• Offer the same topic at different levels so beginners, mid-level, and advanced learners are all challenged.
• Offer sessions during designated PD time and before/after school.
• Record sessions or have presentations available for asynchronous use if needed. (Someone is always absent.)
• Ensure there is time for educators to practice their new skills while help is available.
• Offer information for who to contact if further help is needed after the session.
• Encourage teachers to use social media tools in a professional manner: Blogs, Chats, Forums, Hangouts, Twitter, Skype, Google+, Pinterest... 
• At the beginning of the year, ask educators to share the topic and presenter info for any summer PD they attended and enjoyed; same for any books they read. Create a PD Sharing Sheet (and share with all staff) by having educators complete a Google Form to populate the list with opportunities & brief summaries for others to look into for the future. Continue asking participants to update this list as they attend worthwhile events.
• Use information gathered on the PD Sharing Sheet to consider for potential PD ideas or presenters.

Citations

Technology Integration Plan - Moving Beyond the Vision

Last week, in my Innovative Leadership course, we were asked to compare and contrast Technology Integration Plans (TIP). We also started developing the Vision and Goals for our TIP. In week 4, we are asked to continue developing our plan.

What I have from last week:
Campus Technology Vision Statement
Campus educators will create a technologically rich learning environment to prepare students for a rapidly evolving global society through authentic learning experiences and seamlessly integrated technology in order to develop highly skilled digital learners.

Campus Technology Mission Statement
Campus administrators and educators will facilitate the seamless integration of technology into all areas of the campus, including student learning, the learning environment, operations, and interactions with the community.

Goals for Technology Integration Plan
Goal 1: Each student will show growth toward their individual goals.
Goal 2: Educators and administrators will ensure students and educators have equitable access to technology and the supports necessary for success.
Goal 3: Administrators will ensure appropriate technologies are utilized to support the efficient operations of the campus, especially concerning student data and communications.
Goal 4: Administrators and educators will encourage support and participation of community stakeholders as it relates to technology initiatives.

I'm working on my action plan now, and hope to start on the Professional Development Plan and Budget soon.

Guiding my work are several readings that were shared with us - cited below. The 10 Practices for High Achieving Schools and IDEALS discussed in Networking for Professional Learning Communities (O'Hair et al, 2005) overlap each other quite a bit. Three of the 10 Practices resonate with me immediately: #1 Shared Value System, #2 Authentic Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, and #5 Teacher Collaboration. These overlap with the Leadership (shared), Authenticity, and Discourse in IDEALS.

The 2017 National Education Technology Plan Update considers Learning, Teaching, Leadership, Assessment, and Infrastructure to be the areas of focus when integrating technology in education.

In chapter 10 of Renewed Accountability for Access and Excellence, (Shannon & Cate, 2015) discuss technology support for teachers being a sticking point as some teachers resent being pulled from class for technology PD while others don't want to show their skills for fear of their time being consumed by those wanting help. They also address how important it is to have support available on campus, as close to on-demand as possible.

There is SO MUCH to consider when implementing even a small change in technology. These resources certainly provide a good start!

Citations