Journal 6

Social Justice: Choice or Necessity?
By Colleen Swain and David Edyburn

Social Justice affects children in many areas and threaten to negatively affect many of their futures, just one of these is technology. Technology is getting to be an important staple in education, with many Universities requiring incoming students to have a familiarity with it. Also a majority of the jobs are now requiring workers to be technologically fluent. The article reviews the proper framework classrooms should have in place for students to help them become proficient. Social Justice comes in to play when we start thinking about whether the technology materials and instruction are equitably distributed. It goes on to discuss ways teachers can get involved in obtaining technology for their classrooms by using the Digital Equity Portal and Toolkit. It also discusses the need for using it effectively and how you can evaluate these resources for their quality. Once you have gained access to the technology for your students it is important to monitor the successes and failures and be able to make the necessary adjustments. The message being portrayed is that we, as educators, need to take the necessary steps to get technology into our classrooms.

Question?
How can schools with financial difficulties aquire the technology?

Answer:
By using Digital Equity Portal and Toolkit, you can gain access to websites with solutions such as discounted hardware and free educational software.

Question?
What are some factors that define social justice in technology?

Answer:
That the technology is readily available, can be used regularly, that it is used to enhance the education of students and applies to real life situations and that it can be monitored for effectiveness.