Participate and share: Poster 
Digital equity and literacy issues have been important for a long time, but since the pandemic moved many critical services and goods online, there is a more pressing need than ever for equity and inclusion for everyone in our communities. This poster gathers the evidence from our evaluation and research work on digital equity programs across our state for the last five years. We will share implementation means and accomplishments for different groups in reaching across digital gaps. Breakout boxes will show needs, strategies, and findings to inform future practice aimed at creating digital equity for all citizens. The goal is that technology leaders will find ideas and inspiration for their own digital equity efforts, and have an opportunity to ask the team questions about what might have been similar or different in their experience.
The poster sections cover three areas and will contain explanation and examples of programs that utilized those aspects.
The three sections are:
1. What needs exist - There will be explanations and examples of each of these: access to high speed internet, reliable devices at home, social/emotional connections, safety and security, variable by population (families with children, senior citizens)
2. What strategies were used - These examples will be explored: Digital literacy training sessions, hotspot devices for at-home use, lifelong learning opportunities, low-cost/free computers and internet, strengthening local partnerships, providing learning access through TV, literature review
3. What patterns emerge - we noticed intensive outreach, constant adaptation, networks matter. We offer some implications for moving forward with digital literacy and equity.
By the time of the conference we will have an extensive literature review spreadsheet available through our website that lists local, state, national and international resources that anyone can access. That resource will be accompanied with an infographic map and two briefs which may be referenced. We will be pleased to offer this as an enhancement to information we provide on the poster.
Some supporting references since we don't have the website link live yet:
Becker, J., Washington, J., Naff, D., Woodard, A., & Rhodes, J. (2020). Digital equity in the time of COVID: The access issue. Richmond, VA: Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium.
Bergson-Shilcock, A. (2020). The New Landscape of Digital Literacy: How Workers' Uneven Digital Skills Affect Economic Mobility and Business Competitiveness, and What Policymakers Can Do about It. National Skills Coalition.
Katz, V. S., Moran, M. B., & Ognyanova, K. (2017). Contextualizing connectivity: How internet connection type and parental factors influence technology use among lower-income children. Information, Communication & Society, 22(3), 313–335. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2017.1379551
Park, K., So, H.-J., & Cha, H. (2019). Digital Equity and accessible moocs: Accessibility Evaluations of Mobile moocs for learners with visual impairments. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 35(6), 48–63. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.5521
Toha Tohara, A. J., Shuhidan, S. M., Saiful Bahry, F. D., & bin Nordin, M. N. (2021, April). Exploring Digital Literacy Strategies for students with special educational needs in the Digital age. Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education (TURCOMAT). Retrieved April 28, 2023, from https://turcomat.org/index.php/turkbilmat/article/view/5741
Weaver, D. J. (2022, December). Delivering on the promise of digital equity. Digital Promise. https://doi.org/10.51388/20.500.12265/166
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