Digital Equity
Digital Equity Day 2025
Join us for the fourth ¼ªÏé·» Digital Equity Day on Friday, April 25th from 10:00am to 1:30pm in-person in the Jack & Florence Ferman Presentation Room and live on Zoom.
Schedule
- Opening Remarks | Dr. Erika D. Beck, President
- Welcome | Ron Philip, Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
- Keynote Speaker | Kari McCoy, ¼ªÏé·» Academic Technology Equity Fellow and Doctoral Student |ÌýExploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Community Partnerships on Continuation High Schools
- Faculty Presentations onÌýAI in Teaching and Research Pilot
- ¼ªÏé·» AI Jam 2025 Showcase and Award Ceremony
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What is Digital Equity?
Digital equity means ensuring students have equal access to technology, as well as digital literacy skills to navigate digital tools for success throughout their educational careers. Championing equitable access to technology is at the core of our mission, we are engaged in scholarly and technology initiatives that support the amelioration of digital disparities.
We are excited to share several rewarding developments in our quest toward digital equity.
Doctoral Student Academic Technology Equity Fellowship
¼ªÏé·»'s Office of Academic Technology in collaboration with the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership, and the Research and Sponsored Programs office, launched the Doctoral Student Academic Technology Equity Fellowship. This fellowship supports doctoral-level research and professional development in topics that include digital equity, identification and promotion of best practices in technology-based education, and solutions toward improved access to technology regardless of ability and socio-economic background.
For more information, visit our Doctoral Student Academic Technology Equity Fellowship page.
Other Academic Technology Digital Equity Initiatives
This event featured Stephen Than, 2023 - 2024 Doctoral Student AT Equity Fellow, giving the keynote presentation: Part-Time ¼ªÏé·» Faculty’s Experience with Canvas During Their First Semester, as well as faculty presentations, and the AI Jam Award Ceremony.
To learn more about Stephen, visit the Doctoral Student AT Equity Fellow page.
The event will also highlighted efforts on digital equity at ¼ªÏé·», scholarly projects, and AI in digital teaching.
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This event featured Guadalupe Cardona, 2022 - 2023 Doctoral Student AT Equity Fellow, as well as faculty presentations, and the App Jam Award Ceremony.Ìý
It also highlighted efforts on digital equity at ¼ªÏé·», scholarly projects, and pros and cons of AI in digital teaching. To learn more and register for the event, visit theÌý¼ªÏé·» Digital Equity Day 2023 page.Ìý
The firstÌý¼ªÏé·» Digital Equity DayÌýtook place on Friday, April 22, 2022.ÌýThe event was held in HyFlex format (in-person and online), and featured Autumn Fabricant, our Doctoral Student AT Equity Fellow, who presented on her research project:Ìý.
Northridge, California, November 2021Ìý- Academic Technology has been awarded aÌý¼ªÏé·» Diversity & Equity Innovation grantÌýas part of the program established “to support educational projects, scholarly research, creative activities and other programmatic initiatives that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, anti-racism and social justice for the benefit of the ¼ªÏé·» community."
The grant proposal, titled "Disseminating the Keys to Digital Equity: The ¼ªÏé·» Digital Grapevine," presents a plan to help improve the digital literacy skills of ¼ªÏé·» students by engaging student ambassadors. By leveraging social media platforms and YouTube, student ambassadors will create and share timely and relevant equity-minded content on the use of technology. According to Buzzetto-Hollywood et al. (2018), digital literacy is a barrier to success for underserved students.
The proposed model of Digital Equity Ambassadors will allow students to learn organically from their peers and empower them to seek help. This research-based model targets students who are in the most need of technology-based content to help fill in the digital literacy gaps. Research demonstrates that resources and programs created with the intention of targeting underserved audiences have a larger impact across the board, including the general audience (Thayer, 2000).ÌýÌýÌýsuggests that institutional leaders should focus their student success efforts on student leader inclusion. The peer-to-peer ambassador model cultivates leadership and encourages students to connect with each other.
The ¼ªÏé·» Digital Grapevine will create resources with that specific underserved audience in mind. Moreover, this project intentionally builds upon Yosso’s (2005) ideas on community cultural wealth as it will empower students to use social and navigational wealth to engage with technology.
References
Buzzetto-Hollywood, N., Hwei Wang, Elobeid, M., & Elobaid Red Rug, M. (2018). Addressing Information Literacy and the Digital Divide in Higher Education. Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning & Learning Objects, 14, 77–93. https://doi-org.libproxy.csun.edu/10.28945/4029
Thayer, Paul B. Retention of Students from First Generation and Low Income Backgrounds. Washington, DC: Council for Opportunity in Education, 2000.Ìý.
Yosso, T.J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race ethnicity and education 8(1), pp. 69-91.
¼ªÏé·»'s Office of Academic Technology in collaboration with the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership, and the Research and Sponsored Programs office, are excited to announce Stephen Than, CC23 Educational Leadership Cohort, as the 2023 Doctoral Student Academic Technology Equity Fellow!Ìý
¼ªÏé·»'s Office of Academic Technology in collaboration with the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership, and the Research and Sponsored Programs office, are excited to announce Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona, CC21 Educational Leadership Cohort, as the 2022 Doctoral Student Academic Technology Equity Fellow!ÌýVisit theÌýDoctoral Student Academic Technology Equity Fellowship page to learn more.