Georgia Tech Students View EdTech through an Equitable Lens
At the end of the Fall 2018 semester, I was invited to guest lecture in Dr. Alexander Shapiro's Educational Technology course at Georgia Tech. It was amazing, to see first hand, how innovative and passionate these students are about equity in computer science.
With the hope of connecting how equity in computing education will have an equitable effect on the tech industry as a whole, I kicked off my talk with a definition of who the Constellations Center for Equity in Computing is and an overview of our research. I also introduced the students to what we are currently doing in Atlanta Public Schools (APS) and how concepts like "Social Scaffolding" play an extremely important role in aligning the value systems of the content with those of students we are teaching.
I’m a firm believer in giving students the opportunity to participate rather than just listen. During a brainstorming exercise, about 100 undergraduate and graduate students broke up into groups and attempted to design a prototype, solution or model to make computer science education more equitable for all students.
The groups chose to focus on potential students that they decided are the most in need. This led to some groups choosing to focus on primary school children while others set out in pursuit of the “life-long” learner who might be looking to just learn something new, or for a career change or maybe even an end-of-career invigoration. Regardless of the demographic, these students developed a multitude of fantastic ideas and models to engage their learners equitably.
One of my favorite experiences was with the group pictured above. This group chose to approach the ever elusive concept of recursion in terms of an intro to computer science context. In the beginning, their discussion centered around a “Russian Doll” visualization to demo the concept for students. Once Dr. Shapiro and I made it around to their group, the students were informed that in order for this doll example to be equitable, students must have prior knowledge of the dolls and the functionality of the model.
The group was instructed to iterate but in context of the value system of students today. The group theorized that the most powerful context for students today is that of the “mobile device” or phone. Now thinking more equitably, they described a new process. By using one person’s phone, a student can take a picture of another student’s phone. Then, a third student would take a picture of the person’s phone with the screen showing a picture of the first person’s phone. Then, after the entire class has participated the result would be a photo with dozens of recursions, “a picture of a phone inside another…”
Finally, each group was given 60 seconds for an “elevator pitch” of their idea. The results blew me away. The students really demonstrated what it means to be equitable, beyond simply being accessible, they showed that context and adaptability are vital for lasting and meaningful student engagement.
Most of all, they gave me hope for how up and coming members of our workforce approach equity and the ideas that they can bring to the table for making computer science equitable for all.
