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Hi Darcy,

I totally agree with you! But I think in regards to equity and access, the exact same potential problem arises in how time will distributed when financial resources are tight.

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Can Freedom Be Limiting? Yes and no. I am interested in this thread because it feels personal. I think I would have struggled a lot less in K-12 if it had been more acceptable for me to work toward my interests and an skill set. I often found school assignments stifling in structure and teachers myopic in their vision.
On the other hand, it is possible to have too much choice. It can be paralyzing for anyone to stare at a blank canvas. Adding a little structure can be a great way to spark creativity.

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I believe all the shareholders have a responsible for closing the gap in education inequities. But certainly the player that is the most responsible is the government. A good start for a change can be governmental incentives to promote the use of universal design for learning principles and then such principles could become enforceable. Like with other issues of inequality such as parking permits for people with disabilities efforts can begin with incentives then, they provoke a cultural change and finally an enforceable law can be passed to address the problem directly.

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The question that always worries me is "why should teachers care?", I understand that on a human level we all expect teachers and educators to want to provide individual instruction and personalised experience, but in reality there is a very high turnover rate amongst young teachers and over 70% leave their jobs in the first 3-5 years. Listing "burnout" and "too much stress" as the key reasons. So I think the technology that we are creating definitely has to address teacher needs rather than just making life easier for the students. One of the ways that I can think of is data collection and processing, AI and big data analytics can be used to analyse student records and generate individual solutions - lesson plans, learning objectives etc.

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Lucia, I remember that article too and was troubled by how much time the kids were forced to sit in front of the PCs.  In that article, it was to save money for Rocket Ship schools, but for our topic today, I think learning how to work independently at a PC, and hopefully with a variety of choices on how to engage with it (text, video, audio, game) can be part of a well-rounded curriculum if paired with other face-to-face activities.

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That's really cool! Do you have a link?

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Hmmm, I'm not saying we should put students in more boxes, but rather suggesting we use metrics (besides statistical averages) to capture the diversity of students within an existing "category". For instance, with the example of ADHD -- instead of generalizing learning tendencies by reporting statistical averages of all children with ADHD, we can tease out various factors and create a more nuanced understanding of learning. Education also isn't as straight forward as creating "adjustable seats", so we should be breaking down data and averages to understand more complex learning patterns.

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I disagree with you a little bit on this. Relating to the Air Force thing, the size profiles of those pilots are going to be fairly random. They found that there wasn't a big relationship between any of the measures, say height and hip size. I think it would be very, very similar for any metric you use to measure the abilities of students. I mean, I could certainly be wrong and research into this could be interesting, but I'm not sure you're going to find reliable ways to group students. I think our time as researchers and designers of educational content would be better spent finding ways to make content "adjustable" so that it can work for different, unpredictable learner profiles. If you try to fit students into learner profiles, I think you run the risk of doing the same thing as trying to fit everyone into an "average" box, except there are slightly more boxes.

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Good point about the need to differentiate between differentiating between the appropriateness of supporting a task that might be hard (and avoided by students) vs. offering a choice in task

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I think that regardless of student choice in these situations, there is some common ground among them, there are baselines and goals that we expect students to complete.

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I definitely feel increasing student choice is a key component of an adjustable classroom. No one knows the student better than themselves.

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I think one way teachers can "adjust learning" is to incorporate options into their lessons. When students are given the option of how to show their understanding of a topic, not only are they more empowered but teachers are more easily able to see students strengths and weaknesses of the concept rather than the medium that they are using.

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Agree! Educational (and digital divide)inequities won't be solved without getting to the root causes in systetmaic economic and historical inequalities.

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I agree! This is a HUGE reason why teachers repeatedly and overwhelmingly say they find PD useless.

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I agree with Iva and Jingyu's sentiments. I feel there is a popular narrative based on the relatively simplistic mode of thinking that technology will somehow garner equity and inclusion. Much like we've discussed before, technology is simply a medium, a medium that ultimately reflects the underlying beliefs of the architects. So in order to create a more inclusive environment, we must first examine the motivations for ed tech creators, specifically how are they thinking about equity in the creation of products, and how can their technology include or exclude underrepresented groups of people.

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I agree with you 100 percent. The goal to make education all-inclusive is not too idealistic. However, from personal experience, I've seen well-intentioned teachers and admin attempt to create an inclusive environment in a misinformed fashion, resulting in the "soft bigotry of low expectations". How do we achieve this delicate balance of providing teachers with the right knowledge and skills to create a truly inclusive environment?

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Hey Tim - thanks for your thoughtful response! Here's the article I referred to in my original post  http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/09/the_futurist_industry_is_overwhelmingly_white_and_male.html

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Hi Jennifer,
I would make sure your car is on and running should you ever suggest that teachers engage in PD sessions over summer. Some will, of their own volition, if reimbursed from their school, and if they experience zero push from the school to do so. If you try to move in on their time in a way that doesn't feel volitional though, you'd better be prepared for a fight.

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As the perpetual pessimist, I'm failing to understand how this moves past the "Wouldn't it be great if" stage and gets through to implementation. Teachers are up against it, to add on to Kelsey's point, and, without their buy-in, will not emphatically seek out these learning opportunities.

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Yeah, Andrew. I think you're onto something here. I feel like there is a significant divide between policy makers' priorities - assuaging special interests and corporate donors among other political intrigue - and the needs of actual students.

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Great questions! Off the top of my head, some metrics we used were: attendance at trainings (when folks don't have a reference pt. for a topic or don't know they need to learn a skill, counting who shows up is important). We also looked at folks who hadn't created a website or digital footprint before and saw their progress in not only getting online, but tapping into tools like Google AdWords and Analytics. We measured website traffic and also comfortability with teaching others what we taught them. The program is still running and is also in New Orleans and I believe, Kansas City.

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I was recently reading that something like 1% of the overall data generated is actually used and mined.  I love your idea to focus on jagged learning profiles for attending to data.  I wonder if our data mining expertise are as sophisticated as we need them to be to make this happen.

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I think the UDL principle is a good example of an adjustable seat, and is a great way for teachers to implement differentiated instructions. By creating lesson plans with UDL, teachers get to  meet individual student's  needs within a mixed ability classroom, and avoid the stigmatizing effects caused by the traditional approach of ability streaming / grouping.

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Yes, I agree with your point that a welcoming attitude will help to create a less prejudiced learning environment. Technology will provide wider access for learners regardless of barriers, but the fundamental thing prior to that is to create the sense of equity and inclusiveness. Technology is ready to help, but it might not walk ahead of ideas.

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I don’t think customizing for each student’s individual needs will necessarily result in limiting their competencies. As long as learning goals are appropriately set, multiple means of representation, expression and engagement provided by the UDL guidelines will serve students better in the sense that it actually gives more opportunity to learn. What matters is how to set the learning goals. The diverse materials, assessments, and instructional strategies are just ways to help students reach the goal.

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Part of this engagement is looking at how to a) make engaging content and b) make it at scale. We kind of need to look at what is actually engaging students. That could be the fancy technology, but it may not be, but we could ask what exactly the driving point is and, if it is the high technology element, what exactly are they getting out of that and how can this be reproduced at scale?

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For that matter, how about "adjustments" for administrators? Changes in culture often stem from administrative leadership and, in order to have that administrators have to have a strong sense of purpose and leadership to not only motivate the staff, but also in order to successfully implement it. I guess the question is where does that adjustment come from. The policy world? Research? Other administrators? A combination and where does that come from? I also am kind of wondering about whether it is a technical matter of expertise, as Tim suggests, or whether there is leadership that drives that forward as well. Communication in ideas is important and part of driving change is having confidence. Personally, I think experience can, perhaps, help, but some of this could be personality driven as well

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Yes, we can remove barriers, but to add to what Melissa and Kelsey were saying, sometimes, even though we seek to remove barriers, it would be inappropriate to completely avoid having the student doing the task. I'm taking a class with Tom Hehir this semester and he frequently mentions how important it is, for dyslexic students, for instance, to be "in text" meaning that it is important for them to have the experience of reading even though it might be much more difficult for them. However, you still want to have certain supports for that.

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The National Equity Project's definition is important, but difficult. I do agree with the intent, but we have to a) focus on the idea of "meeting students where they are" (and determining how exactly to go about doing that. We have to realize also that UDL won't be able to do that perfectly. Like Jennah notes at left, we won't be able to handle maybe every situation and, indeed, not everything will be things that a school could (and maybe even should) deal with.

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Agreed! Just like students need support, so do educators in order to effectively teach, so that each student can learn.

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From In Pursuit of Equality....The National Equity Project's operational definition states "Educational equity means that each child receives what he or she needs to develop to his or her full academic and social potential."
Your word choice of 'always' defies this definition. To me it means meeting students where they are and supporting their development and skill-set so that they can respond in an appropriate manner when life throws them curveballs.

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These are two separate issues but not mutually exclusive. Teachers have to improve their practice and cultural competency, ed tech providers should do the same. I agree with Watters...."make education borderless, gender-blind, race-blind, class-blind and bank account-blind" so that we can reach all children.  Is this too idealistic?

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(in response to the 4th question: Can freedom be limiting?)

This was also one of my biggest concerns as to whether students would be confined to their comfort zone without giving them a push. However, a change in my perspective towards this derived from a deeper understanding of the use of UDL guidelines. It emphasizes the importance of designing variability in learning and engagement by reducing the construct-irrelevant barriers and then creating desirable difficulty. Thus, the multiple means of representation, engagement and action & expression will not block learners of such needs from cognitive or non-cognitive competencies, but will, on the other hand, providing access to all learners with dis/abilities.

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Going with this analogy of adjustable seats, the pilots could adjust the seats for themselves to fit their bodies. Should students also have adjustable seats that they can adjust for themselves? Does this imply increasing student choice?

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Everyone is equally responsible. However politicians have to play a major role as markets left to its own will only continue to foster inequity.

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According to my understanding, the Divide use Divide refers to two separate issues. One is the access that students have to technology in school and at home. Second is the way that students are using that technology either actively or passively. In terms of increasing access to technology, admin, ed-tech companies, and politicians have the most power to make that happen. Whether it's making the decision to set up that infrastructure in a school (admin), designing affordable tech options for students (ed-tech companies), or providing more funding and support (politicians), getting the technology to the students is an important first step. In terms of the second challenge of changing the way in which students use technology, I think that the onus is on educators to design and implement learning environments that encourage students to use technology in an active way.

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"Adding technology does not scrub it away. To the contrary, we need to recognize where and how and why education technology actually makes things worse"
-Audrey Watters

I find the most promising means of providing any child with a quality education to be providing them with a welcoming and compassionate environment. To authentically do so, teachers need to develop knowledge of the cultures and backgrounds their students come from as well as the ability to include all those backgrounds in the classroom. While technology could be a medium for introducing these backgrounds into a classroom, I don't think it has a bigger role to play that that. The bulk of the solution should rest on helping teachers learn to foster physical environments that are conducive to making all students feel welcome, a necessary feeling for genuine learning.

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I found the Myth of Average Ted Talk to be really fascinating. It's a concept that is so deeply ingrained in how we function as a society. We heavily depend on statistical averages to capture people/students, to support new scientific research, to implement new interventions and quantify effectiveness. Instead of proposing "adjustable seat solutions," I'd love to first take a look at the way we approach the analysis and reporting of educational data -- data that drives
much of policy and decision-making. What needs to change in the way researchers in the field of education (and beyond) conduct innovative educational research; what metrics do we need to consider to truly “capture” students performance and ability? How should we approach and interpret outliers and statistical averages? What are other ways to cut the data and identify subpopulations and patterns of “jagged” learning profiles?

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The article that we read about Rocket Ship Charter Network earlier really stuck with me, and I think it is very applicable to the UDL framework. Are kids going to get slotted into independent, silent work stations? Experts on human development push the need for "serve and return" (essentially conversation) in order to build cognitive capacity... can computers serve this function? Can we train educators to balance this with human interaction?

- I am totally for students having goals that align with their individual learning needs (outlined in the Competency Works reading), but I see a threat to the bigger picture of raising citizens who are able to work collaboratively.

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To add to Kelsey's comment, if the main goal of the lesson plan is to teach writing skills, educators can focus on reducing the barriers in the instructional process, such as providing written, visual, and auditory directions, and offering a context for the task.

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I think addressing the digital divide is the responsibility of everyone. Some of the most innovative ideas come from collaboration. As it stands, there is often limited funds for ensuring access to technology. A school district in California addressed the issue of internet access by using equipping school buses with internet and parking them overnight through out the community.

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The digital divide and lack of reliable internet access at home can put low-income and rural students at a real disadvantage when it comes to 21st century skills and connected learning. So when Superintendent Darryl Adams took over the second poorest school district in the nation, Coachella Valley Unified School in California, one of his priorities was getting his students online. But how do you do that in a rural area where many of his students live in trailer parks and remote communities? The answer: the 100 school buses that roll into the parking lot every day.
READ MORE: The Slowest Internet in Mississippi
In one of the most innovative and successful programs of its kind, Coachella has outfitted school buses with Wi-Fi routers and solar panels and parks them overnight in the most underserved communities. "We wanted to ensure that students had 24/7 access to the Internet. Because learning does not stop at the end of the school day," Adams said.

The country's Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith calls Coachella "an incredibly creative idea" that enables rural areas to take advantage of innovative learning strategies, such as flipped classrooms, which enable students to watch or listen to lectures at home and then do team projects or get extra help at school. Smith said there's a lot of work to be done in rural areas: census data shows that there are still 5 million households with school-aged children who are not effectively connected to the Internet.
Read the full transcript of this segment below:
HARI SREENIVASAN: Tonight: an innovative solution to bridging the digital divide for students.

Too frequently, kids and their parents in rural low-income communities don't have access to the Internet and high-quality learning technologies. But, in California, a unique project is providing free home access to the Web in one of the nation's poorest districts.

Much of the footage for this story was shot by teenagers who are part of our Student Reporting Labs network, in collaboration with PBS SoCal in Southern California.

The correspondent is David Nazar.

DAVID NAZAR: Thirty minutes west of the wealthy suburbs of Palm Springs is a desert oasis best known its annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

But behind the parties and concerts stretches a vast and isolated landscape, home to the second poorest school district in the country, where most families live below the poverty line and struggle just to pay the rent.

DARRYL ADAMS, Superintendent, Coachella Valley Unified School District: We have some of the poorest of the poor in our country, very economically challenged, and 100 percent of our students are on free and reduced lunch. Some of them living at trailer home parks that some have been condemned recently, or some in railroad, abandoned railroad cars. It's just unbelievable, some of the challenges they face.

DAVID NAZAR: Coachella Valley Unified School District Superintendent Darryl Adams believes the right use of technology is critical for the families in this area, like Norma Olivas and her daughter, Anisa Perez.

NORMA OLIVAS, Anisa's Mother: I do see students sometimes struggling, and, right now, sometimes, some of the kids struggling to get school, to do certain things. And I wouldn't want my daughter to go through any that. I wouldn't want her to be a dropout.

DAVID NAZAR: When Adams took the job in 2011, the graduation rate was 70 percent, according to the district. One of his key initiatives was to get every student an iPad and Wi-Fi service, but he knew it would be challenge.

DARRYL ADAMS: We have 1,250 square miles to cover, larger than the state of Rhode Island. So, when we out there were spots in every which way, students weren't connected, we said, well, how can we get them connected?

And so one of the ways, we said, look, we got 100 buses. Let's put Wi-Fi routers on those buses. And let's park them where the need is.

DAVID NAZAR: Finding the funding for this fleet of buses was no easy tasks. Nevertheless, in 2012, the community voted for and passed Measure X, a nearly $45 million school bond to fund the Mobile Learning Initiative over 10 years. They called the program Wi-Fi on Wheels.

ANISA PEREZ, Student, Desert Mirage High School: In the bus, it's kind of cool that we have Internet, because when the project is due the next day, we can actually spend time to do it.

DAVID NAZAR: Completing assignments was difficult for Anisa before getting her iPad and Wi-Fi service at home.

NORMA OLIVAS: We would have to travel actually to go in, go to the library, get the books she needed to look up the information and go home. I don't make a lot of money, but I will do whatever it takes to make sure she does get a better education.

DAVID NAZAR: Adams is doing whatever he can to make sure that the 20,000 students in his schools, 98 percent Hispanic and about 10 percent undocumented, develop the skills they need to graduate.

DARRYL ADAMS: So we realized that we had to provide this to our students in order for them to compete in the 21st century.

DAVID NAZAR: Installing solar panels on rooftops of the school buses to power the state-of-the-art Wi-Fi routers was a solution proposed by Adams.

DARRYL ADAMS: Being a musician by trade - I was a music teacher from L.A. Unified when I started out 30 years ago - and, as a musician, you're always creating and thinking of different ways to do things or to play things or to hear things.

And so I brought that to my career in education. And I have had some difficulty in the past, because some people weren't really kind of ready for Adams' crazy ideas. But this district was. And just about anything we do that's maybe different and is good for kids, we go with it.

DAVID NAZAR: CVUSD's director of technical services, Israel Oliveros, provides the technical support for the entire district.

ISRAEL OLIVEROS, Director, Technology Services CVUSD: We run power through a conduit that is already existing on the bus. It goes through the front of the bus. That's where the router is located. Then we do have the antennas pointed in different directions. For the students, that will cover a 150-foot radius.

DAVID NAZAR: The school districts allows a few of these buses to be parked throughout the East Valley overnight. For students, it's a lifeline to the outside world.

DARRYL ADAMS: We wanted to ensure that students have 24/7 access to the Internet, because learning doesn't stop at the end of the school day.

DAVID NAZAR: Megan Smith is the chief technology officer of the United States. It's her job to advise the president on technology and innovation that will improve the future.

MEGAN SMITH, Chief Technology Officer, Office of Science and Technology Policy: Coachella is an incredibly creative idea. Being able to flip the classroom and be involved in - have video at home, instead of the classroom has a lecture. So, a lot of work to do in the rural areas.

DAVID NAZAR: There are federal programs in place to help provide Wi-Fi to rural school districts, like the FCC's E-rate program, which provides about $1.5 billion each year to schools. However, census data shows that there are still five million households with school-age children who are not effectively connected to the Internet.

Smith says that has to change.

MEGAN SMITH: There is a lot of creativity that American people have.

And so whether it's going to come from a school district, a municipal leader, or one of our national players, we need everybody in on this game working on it. It's a very, very important, fundamental resource for all of our people. And it drives our economy. And it drives our community and our interconnections.

DAVID NAZAR: With Adams at the wheel, the graduation rate jumped from 70 percent to 80 percent. Now the superintendent has aspirations beyond students getting their homework done. He wants to connect everyone in the East Valley.

DARRYL ADAMS: Because we found that we had a problem with some of the third-party Internet service provider companies not willing to go into some of the areas where we serve. So, in the long run, we would like to become our own Time Warner or our own Cox Communication and provide this for our students. It's too crucial for them to have this access for us not to go down this path.

DAVID NAZAR: Anisa recognizes that technology and the Wi-Fi on Wheels program is playing a vital role in her education.

ANISA PEREZ: I want to do this for my mom, because my mom didn't really get to finish school. So that's what motivates me to actually do - to finish school and complete my work and get the job I want.

NORMA OLIVAS: I would want her to have a better life than what I have right now. I would want her to do really, really good in school, so she can get all these ideas that she wants, nice restaurants, different things like that. That's one thing she always wants to do, travel. And that's what she's hoping to go for.

DAVID NAZAR: For the PBS NewsHour, I'm David Nazar in Coachella Valley, California.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Two of our Student Reporting Labs, Etiwanda High School and West Ranch High School, traveled to the Coachella Valley to shoot the video for this story.

For a behind-the-scenes look at their journey and how the program is training the next generation of public media producers, visit the Web site at studentreportinglabs.com.
PBS NewsHour education coverage is part of American Graduate: Let's Make it Happen, a public media initiative made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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Wi-Fi-enabled school buses leave no child offline

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The digital divide and lack of reliable Internet access at home can put low-income and rural students at a real disadvantage. So when superintendent Darryl Adams took over one of the poorest school district in the nation, he made it a top priority to help his students get online 24/7.

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Snaps to adapting to the needs of students' realities. I also liked the "Opportunity Spotlight" in the NCLD article that advocated for including students' strengths and interests in their IEPs. It's so ironic to me that building community and focusing on what makes individuals uniques is literally the LAST consideration, and often just an add on that "expert teachers" are able to integrate. No! The school day should just be one giant celebration tying students' identities and lives to knowledge and curiosity.

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Hype vs. Hope

To play devil's advocate:
Maybe some of the pushback is the result of teachers doing a hype vs. hope analysis and determining that "the next big research-backed disruptive transformational achievement gap-busting thing" is really just the same thing in a pretty new package

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I agree!

Another issue with PD beyond the time separation is that PD's modality often doesn't match the actual practice of teaching.

It would be like learning to fly a plane by reading about planes.  At some point, you have to grab the controls and practice.

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I also think that it is challenging to learn anything fully without the opportunity to practice it. If PD happens in summer, then teachers don't have the chance to practice new skills with actual students until a few months later.

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I think this kind of training is starting to become more commonplace in schools and also, I'd wager, fairly common knowledge.

The question becomes what to do and I'm not sure that teachers alone can address these problems. I'd argue that schools serving these populations need more support services.

One are in which I'm hopeful that technology can help with these students is that it might increase flexibility so that there can be more time for support groups, one-on-one counseling, community activities and generally make it so that school can adapt to the needs of student's realities.

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Summer??

A few reasons from my experiences:

1) The need for a break. Teaching can be rewarding, but also emotionally draining and unlike other jobs, it's difficult (and bad for students) for teachers to take vacations during other times of the year

2)  Money
There may or may not be money available to pay teachers for summer PD

3)  Family
Teachers with children might want to use that time to actually see their kids, take them on trips, etc.

4)  Summer Employment
Many teachers work summer school, summer camps or in extended-year schools

Still, many teachers do participate in PD over the summer!

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As someone who isn't a traditional K-12 classroom teacher, I would be interested to know why summer is or isn't the best option for PD? From an "outsider" perspective, it seems like the perfect time to dive into this material. What am I missing?

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Great point, Brenna. Do you or others have suggestions/ideas for what those adjustments might look like for teacher PD? What types of design changes do you envision?

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I think the companies in the EdTech community has to take responsibility in the solution.  Here's why.

First a quote: “Who gets to define “personalization”? Who writes all these algorithms that will “personalize” our learning through technology. Who writes the curriculum? For whom is “personalization” defined (and by extension, for whom is “personalization” programmed)?” Source: http://hackeducation.com/2014/07/02/personalization-teaching-machines

Second, some facts: Most entrepreneurs are white & male. And the EdTech ecosystem is no different.
Source: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-08-23-how-some-edtech-companies-are-owning-up-to-and-addressing-a-lack-of-employee-diversity

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I agree that often teachers are overwhelmed and understandably find the idea of additional PD daunting. Multiple recommendations in the NCLD article referenced PD or professional learning communities; can school and district leaders find ways to provide time for teachers to participate in these activities by cutting back on other responsibilities at some points in the year? If teachers feel fully supported by their administrators in pursuing PD opportunities, they may be more excited to participate in these programs.

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CAST identifies the fostering of Executive Function as one of the main guidelines governing UDL. Is it a stretch to say that with effective UDL, even students with set styles or preferences in displaying competency become gradually more equipped to adapting said styles to any given set of circumstances that they find themselves in. Is one of the benefits of UDL, that eventually students gain higher executive functionality, become more adept at "self-scaffolding" and thus handle life's curveballs with relative ease?

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We've all had the experience of getting into a vehicle and searching for the lever that would allow us to adjust our seats. Is there a parallel between this lever and the real connections to/relationships with our marginalized students that need to be found/fostered before we could adjust the seats of their education in a truly equitable manner?

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Watters quotes research from Pew that seems to allude to the divide emanating from a complex interplay of socioeconomic factors including race, income and educational level attainment. Maybe the elemental question we should be asking here is how can these groups collaborate to alleviate the socioeconomic hardships that adversely affect marginalized groups and exacerbate the digital divide in the first place?

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It seems that 3 of the 5 current fund council members operate  somewhere within the education spectrum. I wonder what their specific roles are as council members and how their roles differ from board members?

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So essentially investing in digital skills P.D. for educators. A lot of times, it seems that there is significant pushback here from educators who are already overwhelmed. Or perhaps it's just the older guard who see it as a distraction from traditional curriculum because there is a significant degree of inertia they need to overcome to get digitally comfortable, whereas younger educators are typically more technically sound and apt to benefit from this type of P.D and put it to good use in their classrooms and communities.

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Interesting article Brenna. The last paragraph seems to allude to a cyclical inevitability of technology's digital divide and suggests that with time, and perhaps economies of scale, the divide is gradually lessened. "It's also possible that AI becomes so ubiquitous that everyone has access and can benefit, which would close any divide rapidly" Do you remind re-posting a link to the "Futurist" article.

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Andy, could you tell us more about the outcomes? This is such an interesting project.

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I really appreciate this comment! Especially Part 2.

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Andy, sounds like an intriguing approach - I especially love the idea of supporting connections across sectors and between demographically diverse groups. I'm curious what impact this initiative had and how you evaluated it?

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Beyond the modality in which students showcase what they know, it will be helpful to incorporate lessons where students have agency to choose the content that they wish to explore further.

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One item that we’ve talked about in the UDL class (T560) is the idea of identifying the learning goal and then removing barriers from that goal. For example, a learning goal might be for students to demonstrate understanding of the different stages of cell division (mitosis). However, if the assignment is to write a paper about mitosis, the act of writing may pose a barrier that limits students’ ability to truly demonstrate their understanding. By reworking the assignment to be simply “demonstrate understanding of the different stages of cell division,” one allows students to do so by writing a paper or creating a visual representation (video, PowerPoint presentation, etc.) or using some other method. Providing students with alternative options to demonstrate understanding can be a great start!

Note that sometimes the learning goal is to write a paper or demonstrate a specific skill. However, when this is not the main objective we can try to remove the barrier.

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Wow! Important question that names a hesitation I've also been feeling! I wonder how much growth is possible in content areas/skills that are not "ideal" for the student when such a degree of freedom exists. At the end of the day, a dyslexic student is still going to have to learn (and practice) reading and writing skills, for example. While competency-based learning and the flexibility of UDL/MTSS open doors for a lot of students who have trouble accessing content and demonstrating their knowledge, I think it's important to make the distinction that our readings and discussions have focused on these systems at large: when you're actually in the classroom, not every assignment is going to allow all these different choices in content or modes of expression. How, then, do we balance a child's strengths and weaknesses with their impulses and what we see as non-negotiable skills/content? And who should ultimately decide which configuration achieves an equilibrium most beneficial for the student, both in the short and long term?

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I also think it's important that we don't lose sight of teachers in developing "adjustable seats" for students. I think similar adjustments should be made for teacher PD as well

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YES they should! I wonder how much farther that money would go toward its real objective if instead it went to increasing those same digital skills in educators--who could then pass them on to the youngest Boston residents, arguably most at risk for increasing the digital divide!

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A real response to this would require volumes! In regard to teacher training--I suspect it starts with 1.)changing the "baptism by fire" aspect of the first years of teaching: Perhaps a steadily increasing exposure to a variety of environments and to the responsibilities of teaching--many of which involve the high sensitivity to factors in and outside the classroom to ensure equity. 2. )Somehow, it's got to integrate at least basic cognitive neuroscience. Teachers need to know HOW factors like anxiety, trauma, hunger, poverty and sleep deprivation (among a million others) affect learning--since many of them manifest most often in the marginalized.

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I was a Google Student Community Leader in college, and I co-led a team to tackle the "digital divide" in Harlem (a neighborhood in northern Manhattan). Though our core members were college students, we partnered heavily with experts at Google, and held trainings with school leaders, nonprofits, small-business owners, and even the elderly. Our belief was that creating an ecosystem in which everyone has been brought up to speed will enable deeper learning.

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Brenna McNally: AI could be driving a new digital divide

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Brenna McNally: AI could be driving a new digital divide

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In light of our AI discussion last week, I found this article "The AI digital divide" really interesting. It suggests that AI could create a corporate digital divide between the big tech players and other companies who don't have access to the same resources. I'm curious how people think this relates to the article shared earlier this semester about the "Futurists"? https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/05/ai-could-be-driving-a-new-digital-divide/

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It would also be helpful to allow for different ways of students to show what they know, like the project-based schools and classes we've seen in other weeks.

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Amy O'Connell: Pictorial Classroom Schedules

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Amy O'Connell: Pictorial Classroom Schedules

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I have visited lower elementary school classrooms that post written and pictorial schedules. This helped students who were non-readers, non-english speakers, and students who needed clearly communicated sequence.

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Barbara Treacy: New city government initiative to address Digital Divide in Boston

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Barbara Treacy: New city government initiative to address Digital Divide in Boston

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The City of Boston announced a new #digitalequity fund this week for Boston non-profits to apply to increase access to digital tools and learning for Boston residents.  The funding for this initiative comes from licensing agreements between Boston and telecommunications companies: https://www.boston.gov/news/city-creates-35000-digital-equity-fund Should educators/school departments have a seat at the table for these kinds of city led initatives?

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SCROLL TO THE RIGHT TO SEE ALL 5 QUESTIONS

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SCROLL TO THE RIGHT TO SEE ALL 5 QUESTIONS

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PLEASE WRITE YOUR NAME AS THE TITLE OF YOUR RESPONSE

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How do teachers actually accomplish UDL in a real classroom? Is it not expecting too much of teachers to provide options/alternatives for everything they provide to students and everything they ask of students? How can we make this practical and "sell-able" to teachers without them feeling overwhelmed?  Can technology help make this possible?

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If students are always provided with a multitude of diverse information-delivery methods, and always given the freedom to choose how they can demonstrate competency, aren't we limiting their competencies to a certain set of ideal circumstances? Isn't the value of being pushed outside one's comfort zone, the development a wide skill-set for when the real world throws you a curveball?

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What will it take for educators to develop the knowledge, will, skill and capacity to teach in a manner that will connect with, and enable the most marginalized children so that they will receive the quality education that they deserve?  Does edtech have a role to play in this?

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The Myth of the Average talks about how airplanes were eventually designed to hold pilots at the extremes and gives the example of an adjustable seat as a solution for different pilot heights.  What is one "adjustable seat" for designing schools to meet the needs of all students?

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Who is most responsible for closing the digital divide and addressing inequities in education? Teachers? Parents? Administrators? Ed Tech companies? Students? Politicians? Businesses? All of the above?

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Ultimately I think that the government will need to play the biggest role to address inequities in access to education. Although we might hope that altruistic companies might play a role, ultimately the role of protection often falls to the government.

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I definitely think that all stakeholders have a role to play in bridging the digital divide. The idealist in me wants to say the government is most responsible for bridging this gap by way of initiatives, funding, policy, etc. Nowadays, however, I don't even trust my government to know how to tie their own shoes -- let alone make policy choices that are cognizant of the kinds of inequities that need to be addressed when it comes to technological resources that are accessible and equitable. So the realist in me actually thinks that ed tech companies are really well poised to help tackle this issue. Many ed tech companies make 'access' a component of their mission statement, and lots of these companies are major influencers in their fields. Canvas, for instance, is trying lead conversations on universal design learning, and many of their development decisions are influenced by this stance. Take, for instance: https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/designers/blog/2017/10/16/implementing-universal-design-for-learning-on-canvas