Educational technology (EdTech) in schools can be a critical tool in advancing equity. But digital equity is not just about students and staff having access to devices and tools. How these tools are selected, used, and assessed to measure impact matters. EdTech — when purposefully selected and applied — can make rigorous and relevant instruction more accessible and engaging for all students, particularly those traditionally underserved. Teachers can leverage EdTech to provide differentiated scaffolds for students, create multiple pathways for students to demonstrate their learning, and design learning experiences that connect to real-world applications.
School systems need strong processes that center equity when selecting, implementing, and evaluating EdTech. TLA partnered with Massachusetts’ Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Office of Educational Technology (OET) to support their work in producing the EdTech Systems Guide: Equity-Driven Selection, Implementation, and Evaluation. The guide includes examples of processes from schools across the country, concrete steps for school systems to follow, a throughline example, and an accompanying workbook. Additionally, the guide centers equity with equity pauses throughout that provide school leaders with questions to consider as they strengthen their EdTech processes as well as special consideration callouts with opportunities to tailor processes to a school or system’s context (e.g., size of school system). The guide intentionally approaches the cycle of EdTech selection, implementation, and evaluation broadly to make it applicable across a diverse range of contexts.
TLA continued its partnership with OET by running two cohorts of Massachusetts school systems, using the guide to strengthen their EdTech processes in a way that centers equity. Through facilitating this networked learning experience, TLA produced case stories to capture the learning from this cohort for other schools and districts.
Find links to the guide, case stories, and articles about the work TLA has done to accelerate EdTech equitably, below.
Explore Resources
- Edtech Systems Guide: Equity-Driven Selection, Implementation, and Evaluation (Guide)
- Collecting Student Feedback on Edtech Tools (Case Story)
- Gathering Family Feedback on Edtech Usage (Case Story)
- Conducting an Edtech Inventory (Case Story)
- Evaluating Edtech Tools (Case Story)
- Creating Capacity Using Asynchronous Edtech Supports (Case Story)
- Capturing Teachers’ Thoughts on Technology Usage (Case Story)
- Empowering Teachers to Pilot Edtech Tools (Case Story)
- Engaging English Language Learning Families to Strengthen Implementation (Case Story)
- Surveying Teachers to Identify Professional Learning Needs (Case Story)
- Asynchronous Learning Modules for Educators (Case Story)
- Edutopia: 3 Steps to Improve Edtech Implementation (Article)
- Digital Promise: How We Can Reframe Edtech Selection to Promote Equity (Article)
- Digital Promise: Three Questions to Center Equity in Your Edtech Procurement (Article)
- Digital Promise: Putting Guidance to Work: Lessons from the Massachusetts Edtech Peer Learning Cohort (Article)
