Reimagining digital equity to meet student needs

We need to shift the narrative around digital equity. Top of mind for many participants were the very ways we talk about and define digital equity—and how it shapes and sustains the larger systemic challenges we see play out in school systems. Inequitable funding formulas, digital redlining, and biased, eurocentric curriculum, for example, all contribute incrementally to inequitable educational experiences. To add digital technological tools into the mix, particularly when they don’t account for existing inequities, often serves to maintain these challenges. We must engage the whole learning ecosystem—not only students—when it comes to digital equity. Facilitating this narrative shift will require intentional practices at all levels. The learning ecosystem refers to everyone involved in a student’s education, from families to district leaders to policymakers. Often when we think of digital equity, we think solely of students. We tend to overlook both the role that adults, such as parents, families, and teachers, play in students’ digital learning and the ways in which they interact with each other. As our participants pointed out, the structures set up to help families engage with their student’s teachers and understand the ways technology is used in the classroom has everything to do with how invested those families may be in digital learning.