Technology and new media have transformed our educational landscape. While no one will argue with the notion that the rise of technology has offered new and innovative solutions to many of the problems in the field, it would be the height of hubris to state that it has not created some problems of its own. Nowhere is this more true than when we talk about educational equity and the role of social justice in education. With the recent protests related to BlackLivesMatter and addressing the role of BIPOC (or Black, Indigenous and People of Color) students in an education system that is not built for them, the time is (as it has been for many years) ripe to discuss how new media can be implemented to better serve our minority students.
While we will be primarily looking at how new media can support BIPOC students, many of these concepts can also be applied to other groups, such as female students and differently-abled students.
In order to address this issue, we will first talk
about the roles that technology and new media can play in tackling educational equity, such as increasing representation and providing cultural relevance. Then, we will address some of the new media tools and techniques that are available to educators to help them build more culturally diverse and supportive classrooms.
A study by Villegas, Strom, and Lucas in 2012 discusses the need for students to see people that look like themselves in professional roles, as well as the positive impact that role models of color can have on all students. The reality, however, is that the majority of educators are not people of color and that many white students and students of color in mixed educational settings do not have the opportunity to see many people of color in positions of power. By utilizing new media, however, we are able to open the walls of our learning environments to reach out to professionals not only in our own communities but around the world. We are also able to allow students to find ways to develop their own voices and provide classmates with views into their worlds in order to better develop multicultural classrooms as addressed by Hollenbeck and Hollenbeck in 2009.
Beyond increasing representation, new media has the ability to develop more culturally responsive and relevant educational experiences. Reedy’s 2019 study involving the creation of culturally responsive online learning environments for Indigenous Australian students can be extrapolated to the educational experiences of students of color in the United States. Reedy stresses the importance of having individuals of the cultural or racial background being served as a part of the construction not only of content but of content delivery in order to develop pedagogy that is based on cultural tradition. Additionally, instructors and students are also able to use new media outlets to facilitate access to content creators creating educational material that is relevant to the cultural sensitivities of students and create their own educational materials that appeal to their interests to share with others.
Now that we have an understanding of what new media can mean for increasing equity in education, let's look at 3 tools that are available to us as we seek to do so.
Tool number 1: Teaching Tolerance at tolerance.org
Teaching Tolerance is an excellent resource for teachers to find representative and culturally responsive resources. This includes lesson plans, lesson materials, and professional development resources, as well as much more. If you are just beginning your journey into anti-racist education, Teaching Tolerance is an excellent jumping-off point.
Tools number 2: Skype a Scientist and Skype in the Classroom
I am including two resources together here in order to address a broader audience of educators because both relate to videoconferencing professionals.
If you are unable to find a specific professional through your community or social media outlets such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn, these resources will help to match you to professionals in a chosen field. Skype a Scientist, in particular, will allow you to indicate the minority enrollment in your classroom so that they can try to match you with a scientist with a similar ethnic or racial background.
Tool 3: YouTube
YouTube is such a broad tool, but it deserves mention on this list because of how powerful it can be in amplifying representative voices and creating voices for students. Something that you might not know about YouTube, however, is that, much like other social media sites, it now uses hashtags to organize material. This means that you can use #createblackhistory #blackvoices or #blackinstem to find videos that are relevant to your content area, and then have students attach those hashtags to your own videos to become a part of the conversation.
How will you use new media to create more inclusive, equitable learning spaces for all of your students?
References
Hollenbeck, J., & Hollenbeck, D. (2009). Using Technology to Bridge the Cultures Together in the Multicultural Classroom. Online Submission.
Reedy, A. K. (2019). Rethinking online learning design to enhance the experiences of Indigenous higher education students. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 35(6), 132-149.
Villegas, A. M., Strom, K., & Lucas, T. (2012). Closing the racial/ethnic gap between students of color and their teachers: An elusive goal. Equity & Excellence in Education, 45(2), 283-301.
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