Classroom Community & Culture

Technology can support creating safe, supportive learning communities where all students belong and thrive, including in a digital environment.

Tech-enabled practice focused on the classroom culture and environment holds the power to

  • help students connect their learning to their interests, identities, and perspectives

  • promote equity and actively disrupt inequity in the decisions they make every day

  • communicate to students that they are in a socially and emotionally safe atmosphere

  • differentiate the place, path, and pace of student learning

  • Creating better connections between teachers and students that foster understanding and empathy

    Offering tools and resources designed to develop teacher understanding of student cultures and identity markers

    Streamlining the process by which students are able to share information with their teacher and peers about themselves

  • Opening avenues for students to connect with their interests, identities, and perspectives

    Expanding the quality and quantity of student interactions with their peers

    Offering opportunities for students to connect their lived experiences to their learning

  • Offering outlets for students to process their own thoughts and emotions or understand each other's viewpoints

    Creating affinity spaces for students to connect with others who share a similar background

Prioritizing Students

Promoting Student Belonging & Identity

Incorporating students’ identities, cultures, and experiences as a part of the education experience

  • Increasing the choice options student have over the content and format of their learning

    Offering flexibility in assessment times, reducing the all-at-once grading load educators feel

  • Allowing students to access information and learn about topics that interest them, increasing their chances of performing well in that area

    Enhancing students’ abilities to set and monitor goals tied to their learning progress

  • Using AL technologies to develop learning customizations based on students’ strengths and interests

    Giving students spaces to explore and create

    Reimagining the role of educators to be facilitators of student learning

Prioritizing Students

Developing Student Agency

Empowering students with choice and voice in their education experience and appreciating their unique talents and strengths as part of the learning process

  • Centralizing communication communication with caregivers into an easy-to-access platform decreasing the time spent making phone calls

    Providing features to allow information to be translated to/from students’ home languages

  • Communicating with caregivers (families and guardians) about student learning and progress

    Providing just-in-time information about important school activities and to connect caregivers, community members, and other stakeholders to the school using ongoing, two-way communication

    Creating school and caregiver partnerships to support students’ learning and well-being

  • Providing caregivers with the opportunity to use the technology students use in classrooms

    Allowing caregivers having deeper conversations with their students about their learning experiences

Connecting Beyond the Classroom

Connecting with Caregivers

Providing families and guardians with important classroom information and data regarding student progress

  • Avoiding duplicative communication across stakeholders

    Clarifying a short list of tech tools to use for specific purposes

  • Establishing a technology team focused on understanding and improving school-wide use of technology

    Streamlining communication about school-wide happenings

    Sharing data and artifacts with administration and school leadership that reveals strengths and needs of teachers and their students

  • Allowing school staff to connect with and learn from each other

    Using observations to understand trends in the school’s current technology use

Connecting Beyond the Classroom

Connecting School Staff

Providing school staff members with ongoing updates and information that support the overall health of the school community

  • Equipping students with the skills to appropriately execute search engine searches during research

    Sharpening students’ skills in identifying reliable and questionable resources

    Establishing a digital community where students feel safe to participate and contribute

    Developing students’ digital language and technical skills

  • Ensuring students follow copyright law and fair use guidelines in their researched work

    Contributing to students’ sense of self-efficacy

    Improving students’ fact-checking and safe searching abilities

    Strengthening students’ interpersonal interactions in digital spaces

  • Equipping students with skills to responsibly engage in community action or contribute their voices to a platform

    Providing skills and competencies that are transferable from one program or platform to another

Optimizing Classroom Operations

Developing Digital Literacy and Citizenship

Integrating digital literacy and citizenship skills into classroom projects or activities

  • Streamlining regular classroom protocols

    Automating data collection and administrative tasks

    Promoting student agency to operate independently in the classroom

  • Making activities like classroom transition, stations, and exit tickets more engaging and interactive

    Allowing teachers to seamlessly incorporate SEL and equity initiatives into the classroom culture

    Increasing teacher skills in classroom management

  • Revisioning the classroom structure where students take on more leadership roles and teachers operate more as facilitators or managers

    Creating space for more meaningful student-centered protocols that improve empathy and equity experiences

Optimizing Classroom Operations

Expediting Classroom Organization & Routines

Supporting the daily functions of a classroom

Learn about the other Areas of Impact.