Digital-Age Communication and Collaboration Tools to Support Diversity and Global Awareness

According to Ladson-Settings (1995), “Not only do teachers must encourage academic success and cultural competence, they must help students to recognize, understand, and critique current social inequities.?This notion presumes that teachers themselves recognize social inequities and their causes.” (Ladson-Settings, 1995, p. 476).?It is not only the duties of teachers, administrators, and district leaders to foster a culturally relevant pedagogy in their particular learning environments, it is also their responsibilities.?Currently adapted curriculum must be developed and revised regularly in order to ensure that culturally relevant teaching practices are implemented across grade levels and across all content areas. Adopting or developing a curriculum that promotes social justice, digital equity, and global citizenship is a crucial step in leveraging digital-age tools and resources for increasing learners' communication and collaboration skills.

Culturally relevant education must be implemented interdisciplinary to guarantee its successful implementation.?Culturally Responsive Teaching is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning (Ladson-Billings,1994). Careful and purposeful planning must take place to ensure that instructional content and adopted teaching strategies successfully incorporate understanding of learners' cultural history and cultural context by involving all stakeholders in the learning process. ?“Research has shown that no one teaching strategy will consistently engage all learners. The key is helping students relate lesson content to their own backgrounds.” (Wlodkowski & Ginsberb, 1995).?Wlodkowski & Ginsberg (1995) have provided us with a framework for effective culturally responsive teaching in which they prescribed four conditions necessary for culturally relevant teaching.??The four conditions are: establishing inclusion, developing attitude, enhancing meaning, engendering competence. “According to the research, teaching that ignores student norms of behavior and communication provokes student resistance, while teaching that is responsive prompts student involvement.” (Olneck 1995). Technology, especially the use of digital content, when implemented effectively and purposefully, could play a vital role in the successful and effective implementation of culturally relevant teaching.?

“Digital content is among the tools educators can use to integrate a culturally responsive teaching framework into their classrooms. ?It can help students develop their own voice and become academically successful and critically conscious forces of change in their communities.” (Beerer, 2017).?In order to include digital content effectively, all stakeholders must have equal access to technological tools and resources in order to have.?One-to-one Technology Initiatives with Wi-Fi connectivity at school and at home help provide equal access to these necessary technology tools and resources to all students. ? Many schools and school districts throughout the United States have made great stride in that direction through its digital bridge initiatives that extend learners' equal accessibility to digital tools and resources at school and at home.?

However, with access to digital resources and technologies comes maximum risks and concerns for students accessing contents online.?Therefore, it is crucial that schools and school districts foster and promote a safe online learning environment for students by minimizing risks in the classroom and at home through the effective implementation of the common sense school curriculum.? APS schools now can earn the badge of a common sense schools by proving that students have the skills and knowledge to use the internet safely and appropriately, to show personal responsibility for learning, and to display leadership for citizenship.

?????????????Embracing diversity is a major component of successful culturally responsive teaching. ??Schools and School districts have the duties and responsibilities to foster and create learning environments where diversity is highly promoted and purposefully planned for.?“Students who enjoyed the most diversity in their classrooms throughout the day also scored the highest in each of these measures. As classrooms became more racially balanced, students felt safer, less bullied, and less lonely. They also viewed teachers as fair and they sought, rather than avoided, cross-race interactions at school.”(Smith, 2017).?“Technology is one effective method because it facilitates acceptance by encouraging cooperative learning and equal communication opportunities by the users. The students using technology will facilitate communication and language skills that are vital skills for success in the classroom and out of school. Learning to work with others as one gains and learns new language skills is vital in the classroom. Using multimedia technology offers opportunities for individualized instructions in a classroom with learners of a new language at various skill levels and different learning styles, therefore effectively using instructional time.” (Hollenbeck, 2009).??APS has adopted many excellent initiatives to promote diversity in its schools.?Multicultural nights offer students the opportunity to display their cultural diversities through various classroom projects.?Project based learning?activities, with the use of technology, encourage learners to display their individual learning styles have become an integral part of the teaching and learning at our schools.?A successful implementation of diversity in the classrooms will result increase global awareness by students.?

Through the use of digital contents, inquiry based learning, and culturally sensitive learning activities, many schools and school districts are building awareness of the world around them as they are being prepared to tackle real-world problems as productive citizens. Students develop understand and acceptance of the world around them, its diverse cultures, and its global issues.?Through digital citizenship, students display legal and ethical behaviors online. ?“Global awareness is about working to understand a region’s geography, resources, history, economy, religions, and languages in order to gain insight into varying perspectives and ways of being and thinking around the world. Our students are part of something larger than themselves, and an understanding of this could ignite the curiosity to become culturally sensitive, responsible, and productive global citizens.” (McVeagh, 2015). ??McVeagh prescribes three ways to teach global awareness in the classrooms.?One, help students to become consultants by encouraging them to learn about ecotourism so they can help promote ecotourism.?Second, have students use digital tool such as Skype in the classroom to connect and to interact with new people.?Finally, help them explore unknown places. ?With the use of Google Fields Trip app, students will be to search areas of interests and discover the various attractions in these areas.? All three ways suggested by McVeagh require the need for digital resources and tools. Thankfully, these digital applications are made available in many schools and school districts as part of their initiatives for promoting global awareness through digital citizenship and the digital bridge 1:1 initiative.

References:

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995) Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 32, No. 3. (Autumn, 1995), pp. 465-491.

Beerer, K. (2017). Building culturally responsive classrooms with digital content. Retrieved June 17, 2019, from https://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/02/culturally-responsive-classrooms-digital-content/

Hollenbeck, J. (2009). Using technology to bridge the cultures together in the multicultural classroom. Retrieved on 6/16/2019 from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED519991.pdf

McVeagh, R. (2017) 3 Creative ways to teach global awareness. Retrieved June 17, 2019, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/3-creative-ways-to-teach-global-awareness

Olneck, M. R. (1995). “Immigrants and Education.” In Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education, edited by J. A. Banks and C. A. M. Banks. New York: Macmillan.

Smith, J. A. (2017). How students benefit from school diversity: A complex new study strengthens the case for racially balanced schools—and uncovers additional advantages for students of all ethnicities. Retrieved June 17, 2019, from https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_students_benefit_from_school_diversity

Tuzel, S., & Hobbs, R. (2017). The use of social media and popular culture to advance cross-cultural understanding. Media Education Research Journal, 25(51), 63-72

Wlodkowski, R. J. & Ginsberg, M. B. (1995). A framework for culturally responsive teaching. Retrieved June 17, 2019, from https://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept95/vol53/num01/A-Framework-for-Culturally-Responsive-Teaching.aspx