When I first started in the Master of Arts in Learning and Technology (MALAT) program, one area of interest that struck me almost immediately was equity in digital learning. Early on, I came across a series developed by Stanford University called, “Education’s Digital Future: Equity by Design” (Stanford Graduate School of Education, 2016), and was introduced to Dr. Nichole Pinkard. Pinkard is an Associate Professor of Learning Sciences as well as Faculty Director of the Office of Community Education Partnerships (OCEP) in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University in Illinois. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2004 Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies (Nichole Pinkard, 2021).
In addition to her years dedicated to teaching and research in EdTech, she is the founder of Digital Youth Network, which is an organization, developed through the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute, aimed at supporting organizations, educators, and researchers through learning best practices in an effort to advance the digital literacy skills, predominantly in underserved communities in Chicago (Digital Youth Network, 2016). DYN has partnered with agencies such as the Chicago Public Library and Chicago City of Learning to introduce various programs and frameworks to support young people in their educational development through digital learning opportunities (Digital Youth Network, 2016b). One such program that is of great significance to me is the Digital Youth Divas program (Digital Youth Network, 2016a), which is designed to help address the gender participation gap that Pinkard was seeing in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) (Stanford Graduate School of Education, 2016).
Pinkard’s passion and advocacy for the advancement of digital literacy skills for youth in marginalized communities, particularly girls in those communities, is one that will help to combat some of the inequities in EdTech, and will allow for contributions and voices that might not have had the opportunity previously.
References
Digital Youth Network. (2016a). Digital Youth Divas.Retrieved September 11, 2022, from http://digitalyouthnetwork.org/divas/.
Digital Youth Network. (2016b). About us.Retrieved September 10, 2022, from http://digitalyouthnetwork.org/#about-us.
Google Scholar. (n.d.). Nichole Pinkard. Retrieved September 10, 2022, from https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YOtsHZkAAAAJ&hl=en.
George Lucas Educational Foundation. (2013, February 6). Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/video/nichole-pinkard-digital-literacy-big-thinkers-series.
Nichole Pinkard. (2021, November 25.) In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichole_Pinkard
Pinkard, N. [@npinkard]. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter profile]. Retrieved September 12, 2022, from https://twitter.com/npinkard?lang=en.
Stanford Graduate School of Education. (2016, May 10). Education’s digital future: equity by design. https://edfequity.stanford.edu/schedule/week-7-equity-making-and-creating-technology.
09/20/2022 at 12:30 pm
Rebecca, really enjoyed how you took up the invitation in the LRNT 523 Assignment (https://malat-coursesite.royalroads.ca/lrnt523/assessment/assignment-1/) and created your thoughtful introduction to Nichole and her work. She has offered such a gift to the field of Ed Tech and the resources you share are wonderful jumping off points for others to dive in and explore – including me 😉 Looking forward to hearing more on how her work inspires you and the ways in which you may take it up as you move forward in your learning journey!
09/22/2022 at 4:58 pm
Thank you Elizabeth. I really enjoyed this assignment as it made me make the time to dive deeper into someone that caught my attention early on and that I had been meaning to come back, but hadn’t carved out the opportunity. I have also enjoyed reading my classmates blogs and taking notes of others that have caught my attention. Thank you for giving us this opportunity.