Inclusion

Whether it’s within today’s business world, the tech world, the educational world, or in the STEAM world, celebrating diversity and inclusion should be the norm. If we have collectively learned anything within the last handful of years, however, it’s that this isn’t universal. In our contemporary STEM and tech jobs, particularly, we still lack true racial, gender, and ethnic diversity.

It’s a broad question and one that will elicit different answers from different people. There are lots of reasons as to why K–12 makerspace experiences provide everyone from kids to experienced manufacturers with excitement, value, and intrigue. And, although the reasoning behind why makerspaces are important are extensive, they usually tie back to a particular mission.

Ideally, every classroom lesson plan and all learning experiences would be designed to foster greater equity for every student in every school building. The fact is, however, that each student is unique. Some need personalized guidance and others, in the same class, might do better with independent exploration. All, however, need school officials to keep equity in mind.

Throughout the remote learning era, for better or worse, students of all ages have truly relied on many different technologies to connect, communicate, and access educational experiences. That’s left many educators, administrators, and parents wondering about the role technology will and should play as students begin to return to normal.

Some students need intentional effort to be made in order to settle into their learning situation, feel more comfortable participating, or use it as a base to become more social with their peers. If educators don’t have the time for one-on-one conversations, they can still communicate using Synth—the focus of this week’s Rising Resources post!

Mobile learning is making its way into K-12 education just as mobile technology is making its way deeper and deeper into our everyday lives and the best way for students to stay connected and be able to learn on the go is with Chromebooks—affordable, portable, and educational laptops for the 21st century.