Multicultural Support with technology
Hello Parents and Guardians of our school community!
My name is Louis Steinberg. I am the technology teacher at the MKG elementary school. I have the unique opportunity to teach all of your children once a week. It is my duty and responsibility to impart upon them the skills they need to be productive members of society. Technology is everywhere these days, from the cars we drive to the checkout line at the grocery store. Our classrooms are no different. Over the last 12 years, I’ve personally watched my classroom become filled with different pieces of technology, some helpful, some not, but all with the best of intentions. One definite benefit of the technology in our classrooms is its ability to teach our students about the many multicultural dimensions of the world around us - not just in our own community but the world at large.
The purpose of my email to you today is to showcase how our school is utilizing technology to address multicultural dimensions in the classroom and to also provide you with a list of helpful resources about this important topic.
To begin, let’s define multicultural dimensions. According to this article there are five dimensions:
I’m happy to report that besides normal paper and pencil avenues for achieving a more multicultural classroom, we already have in place a significant abundance of technology resources for our teachers and students. Some of these tools include:
Another program we are spearheading is being able to offer more opportunities to deepen cultural understanding, broadening the value of diversity, and increasing global awareness. To this end, we have started the following initiatives (with more to follow) in a few classrooms: One of the third grade teachers has really taken the pen pals idea and ran with it. She has at least three different classrooms on two different continents that her class regularly checks in with. Her students are seeing in real time how other kids are living and growing up. It’s incredible the work she’s doing, and she’s been getting quite a following in our school of interested classrooms wanted to try it themselves!
All this technology is great, but we understand that not every family has the same budget or access to technology at home so our schools have the following supports in place to make sure every student has an equal opportunity to achieve their potential:
For further reading check out these websites. I’ve curated a few articles and websites that talk about technology and how it can help teach across multicultural dimensions.
Using Technology to Bridge the Cultures Together in the Multicultural Classroom
Teaching With Technology: Tech That Explores Diversity | Scholastic
Using Technology to Expand the Classroom in Time, Space, and Diversity
Common Sense Media - Parents Section (the Educators section is worth a visit too!)
Designing Instructional Technology for Diverse Learners (YouTube video)
Thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
Louis Steinberg
My name is Louis Steinberg. I am the technology teacher at the MKG elementary school. I have the unique opportunity to teach all of your children once a week. It is my duty and responsibility to impart upon them the skills they need to be productive members of society. Technology is everywhere these days, from the cars we drive to the checkout line at the grocery store. Our classrooms are no different. Over the last 12 years, I’ve personally watched my classroom become filled with different pieces of technology, some helpful, some not, but all with the best of intentions. One definite benefit of the technology in our classrooms is its ability to teach our students about the many multicultural dimensions of the world around us - not just in our own community but the world at large.
The purpose of my email to you today is to showcase how our school is utilizing technology to address multicultural dimensions in the classroom and to also provide you with a list of helpful resources about this important topic.
To begin, let’s define multicultural dimensions. According to this article there are five dimensions:
- content integration
- knowledge construction
- equity pedagogy
- prejudice reduction
- empowering school culture and social structure
I’m happy to report that besides normal paper and pencil avenues for achieving a more multicultural classroom, we already have in place a significant abundance of technology resources for our teachers and students. Some of these tools include:
- Google Classroom
- Classroom websites with public comments sections
- Social media platforms - Facebook & Twitter
- School website of aggregated online material highlighting other cultures/diversities
Another program we are spearheading is being able to offer more opportunities to deepen cultural understanding, broadening the value of diversity, and increasing global awareness. To this end, we have started the following initiatives (with more to follow) in a few classrooms: One of the third grade teachers has really taken the pen pals idea and ran with it. She has at least three different classrooms on two different continents that her class regularly checks in with. Her students are seeing in real time how other kids are living and growing up. It’s incredible the work she’s doing, and she’s been getting quite a following in our school of interested classrooms wanted to try it themselves!
All this technology is great, but we understand that not every family has the same budget or access to technology at home so our schools have the following supports in place to make sure every student has an equal opportunity to achieve their potential:
- To broach the digital divide: every classroom in grades K-5 has access to one of many Chromebook carts, in the middle school/high school we are approaching a 1 to 1 device to student ratio, and in high school, all students are required to take home their device to complete school work.
- Free internet access is available at all schools, libraries, and select other points in town (if not available at home).
- From the IT department, to support the physical technology itself, we offer free tech support for any device used for education within the school.
For further reading check out these websites. I’ve curated a few articles and websites that talk about technology and how it can help teach across multicultural dimensions.
Using Technology to Bridge the Cultures Together in the Multicultural Classroom
Teaching With Technology: Tech That Explores Diversity | Scholastic
Using Technology to Expand the Classroom in Time, Space, and Diversity
Common Sense Media - Parents Section (the Educators section is worth a visit too!)
Designing Instructional Technology for Diverse Learners (YouTube video)
Thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
Louis Steinberg