LARAEC ROCS 2020

This presentation is an introduction to digital equity, digital inclusion, and digital literacy to better understand these terms and discover resources in each of these areas, with the goal of beginning to address digital divide issues locally for the benefit of students, staff, and communities.

COVID-19 has shone a white hot spotlight on a host of digital divide issues in the rapid transition from face-to-face to distance learning this past spring and now continuing into the fall, issues that were present before COVID-19 and threaten to persist into the future. Students (and teachers as well) at all levels are faced with a variety of challenges related to reliably getting on the Internet, access to devices to connect with learning, and their own digital abilities and know-how (often referred to as the “three-legged stool”). Even State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond convened a Closing the Digital Divide Task Force that has been working on these issues since mid-March when schools went into quarantine mode.

The presentation will essentially be a combination of three interrelated items: definitions and what digital equity, inclusion, and literacy specifically refer to; organizations at the state and national levels that participants should learn more about and follow to stay informed about the issues; and other resources, especially in the realm of digital literacy, to help our students become digitally literate and overcome the challenges posed by online learning.

The challenges for students and educators around digital equity, inclusion, and literacy are tough to solve, but by the end of the presentation, the goal is for participants to be better informed on this broad topic and take away a few resources to explore further that can be shared with students, fellow colleagues, and partners to work on these issues locally.