Respect and Equity in Digital Learning Resources
Increasingly, students are spending significant amounts of their learning time engaging with digital learning resources and products, faculty and administrators are increasingly relying on data from those digital learning tools, and the pandemic has only accelerated the process. Understanding how digital learning resources may increase, decrease, or maintain inequity is vitally important for the health of learners, teachers, and society.
In this talk we will look at digital learning resources or more broadly educational technology (ed-tech) through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion. We will take a holistic approach to DEI in education technology, starting with why it is necessary to focus deeply on equity, and why it matters at every level in the organization and in every step from idea to delivery and use of the digital learning resource.
What you can expect:
- A high level talk that will explain all terms and jargon
- A quick look at the potential promise offered by digital learning resources and the algorithms (we will define those) within them
- Some real world examples of what can go wrong when respect and equity aren’t built into products. Bring popcorn and kleenex.
- An approach to ensure digital learning resources work for diverse students, inclusively, and equitably.
- A sneak peak at our new Equity Accelerator course for educational technology developers.
What you will take away:
- A deeper understanding of why a holistic approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion within organizations producing digital learning resources is critical.
- A high level understanding of the algorithms within digital learning tools and why they need to be fair, accountable, and transparent (and what that jargon means).
- Samples and pointers to tools for infusing equity into the design process for digital learning resources.
- Questions to ask about equity when considering digital learning resources.