Cultivating Digital Fluency to Prepare Students for Jobs of Tomorrow

Outline

See our outline as follows, ISTE team. Let’s also address your questions.

- Content and engagement: In the talk, we’ll engage the audience through interactive activities, starting with a live poll to introduce digital equity, followed by visual aids (outlining real-life KSS / Green Ivy projects) and real-world statistics / data (vetted by partner Digital Promise). In highlighting teacher training and utilizing our same multidisciplinary approaches we utilize to build cognitive development and student agency, this conversation will include dialogue and brainstorms. See step #7 which will include an audience discussion.

- Process: The process begins with a live poll to assess the audience's comprehension of digital equity and whether or not they are utilizing any frameworks or curriculum to foster participation and encourage real-time feedback. Visual slides (including videos), handouts (with details of programs the panelists have facilitated) and the poll’s data-driven insights will be used to highlight key points from the outline below. Case studies, videos, and pre-recorded demonstrations will showcase practical applications of digital equity in the classroom. After the session, attendees will be provided with follow-up materials to explore projects on Green Ivy’s website and Digital Promise’s Digital Equity Framework to further grasp how it can be cultivated.

Outline / Time:

#1: Defining what digital equity is (2-minutes)
- Activity: Ask the audience to participate in a live poll with four multiple-choice options: “What do you think digital equity means?”
- Use the poll results as a segue to introduce the concept of digital equity and its key components.

#2: Why it matters (2-minutes)
-Discuss the growing importance of digital access and inclusion in PK-12 education, emphasizing how digital fluency is crucial for ensuring young people’s academic progress, future employability, and long-term economic and societal success.
- Present visual slides showcasing the impact of digital equity (e.g., charts / data showing academic progress differences between those with and without digital access; additional content from Digital Promise).

#3: Cultivating Digital Equity from the Pre-K (5-minutes)
- Explore strategies for embedding digital equity from early childhood education, including (1) providing access to age-appropriate technology, (2) integrating technology into everyday activities through games and interactive apps, (3) engaging with families to ensure effective technology use at home, and (4) developing culturally responsive and safe digital content.
- Display a visual example of apps used in early childhood settings.

#4: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Digital Equity (5-minutes)
- Toggling between the worlds of traditional education and technology, schools can help create the jobs of the future and prepare students for those jobs.
- The first key is to ensure equity to access the tools necessary to prepare for the jobs for the future, and note that it's not always an iPad.
- In this digital age, we cannot survive and flourish without cognitive flexibility or the tools and skills to support it.
-- One tool, especially for young learners, is learning another language (or two).
-- A second tool is integrating music and movement into the curriculum.
- Encourage audience reflection on how non-traditional tech / digital equity tools, like language learning or arts integration, can prepare students for the future.

#5: An Educator’s Role (5-minutes)
- We can’t educate our students if our teachers aren’t properly trained and equipped with the necessary tools. Providing teachers with training and support on how to use technology is critical for them to teach it effectively.
- Discuss data showing that while many teachers use technology, they often lack the training to integrate it effectively.
--“Despite 89% of K-12 instructors using educational technology in their classrooms, over 50% of them cite lack of training as a major obstacle to effective technology integration.”
- Open the floor for questions and short discussion on challenges teachers face in integrating technology.
- Preview how Pine Street teachers champion digital equity in classrooms and school communities

#6: How one school is preparing its students for jobs of the future (20-minutes)
- Educate attendees on the six standards that encompass the Primary Technology curriculum and how those are integrated into Pine Street School’s day-to-day activities, providing a few examples of how Pine Street School students use technology in the classroom and beyond. Six standards as follows, with a few specific breakouts / examples to be highlighted.
-Creativity & Innovation:
- What we’ll cover: How students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.
- How we’ll engage it: Showcase the App Prototype project: During their "Where We Are in Place and Time" unit, fourth graders explored how innovation and technology impact the world by focusing on app development and prototyping. Note, they identified a personal need, researched existing apps, designed prototypes using Keynote, and consulted with a UX designer for feedback before pitching their app ideas to the school community.
- Communication & Collaboration
- Research & Information Fluency
- What we’ll cover: How students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
- How we’ll engage it: Showcase Green Ivy’s Virtual Museum project: While exploring the concepts of change, civilizations, and legacies, students researched various historical civilizations using iPads and identified common elements like education, beliefs, and architecture. Acting as museum curators, students used the CoSpaces app to create a collaborative virtual Museum of Civilizations, with each student responsible for an exhibit.
- Critical Thinking, Problem Solving & Decision Making
- What we’ll cover: How students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.
- How we’ll engage it: Showcase Pine Street’s Compost Crew project
- Digital Citizenship
- Technology, Operations & Concepts

#7: What’s next in Digital Equity (15-minutes; live audience discussion)
- Open conversation for 5-minutes for the audience to predict and discuss what’s next in achieving digital equity.
- Open conversation for 5-minutes for the audience to discuss how they can implement tech and tools to build tech skills and increase student agency.
- Conclusion remarks:
- Close on how we need to continue to educate our students on the importance of building digital knowledge and skills.
- There are frameworks available (Digital Promise) that provide guidance and policy recommendations for states and K-12 education systems on how to use technology effectively in the classroom and beyond.
- Offer resources or frameworks for attendees to explore on their own time.

Supporting research

https://digitalpromise.org/digital-equity/about-the-framework/

Gaby Rowe, alongside Digital Promise, has been instrumental in developing solutions to close the digital divide, as well as providing recommendations for state leaders around upskilling, sustainable infrastructures, and community engagement. This work is crucial to ensure young people’s academic progress and future employability.

Digital Promise’s Digital Equity Framework, which Gaby provided input on and presented at the White House in August 2024, provides principles, guidelines and policy recommendations needed to bridge K-12 and higher education digital divides at the state level.

https://greenivy.com/our-schools/pine-street-school/academics/educational-technology/

Lauren Angarola, Anna Rita Pergolizzi-Wentworth and the Green Ivy International Schools team are dedicated to educating all school stakeholders—parents, students, and community members—on the critical role of educational technology and its innovative application in the classroom. They actively showcase how the school brings The Primary Technology curriculum to life, demonstrating its impact on student learning and engagement.