Learning, Equity, Action, and Design (LEAD) Stackable Graduate Certificate

This course immerses K-12 educators in theoretical and applied practices of teaching and learning in today’s K-12 classroom, as informed by research and best practices. Through immersion in authentic projects, educators will acquire the framing, applied knowledge and design thinking needed to transform curriculum using technology integration and connected learning strategies. Educators will consider authentic learning problems and devise teaching and classroom solutions that promote student learning, humanize pedagogy and minimize the reproduction of inequity in schools.

This course introduces K-12 educators to models that help them to design teaching and learning within online spaces, in ways that help to balance cognitive, teaching, and social presence throughout the online course student experience. Students will be introduced to theoretical models that drive high impact online learning designs, research that informs K-12 practice and models for technology integration and student engagement that promote digital equity. Educators will be challenged to apply these theoretical frameworks to design online courses that are intended for use in authentic K-12 online educational settings.

To contribute to a more socially just society, it is critical that K-12 educators ground digital learning in culturally responsive instructional approaches to foster transformational learning. Educators will learn theoretical approaches to digital justice that promote culturally and
community connected, digital learning designs within and beyond the walls of the classroom. This course immerses educators within a critical frame using a design justice lens, and challenges students to interrogate instructional technology designs as they evaluate and design digital learning spaces. Students will learn how connected and design justice approaches can meet students at typical boundaries of where they live and learn, extend learning environments to cultivate learners’ interests, and provide secure and inclusive learning experiences that span
the formal and informal. Educators will have the opportunity to critically evaluate digital justice practices for the classroom, community, and learners’ homes by examining the digital landscape in which they are situated, and by conducting community-based digital equity audits.
Teachers will have the opportunity in this class to apply their learning through a technology- rich, authentic course learning project that results in cultivating interests, relationships and opportunities for all students in all communities.

The application of appropriate technologies can result in powerfully transformative, and when appropriately applied, equitable learning for students. It is critical that technology integration practices be applied in ways that incorporate current and on-the-horizon educational technologies, innovative and critical approaches to pedagogy, and that address the challenges of integrating these novel technology adoptions in real life settings. Educators in this class will develop as “Connected Educators” by participating within Communities of Practice (CoP’s) related to their digital equity interests. They will be challenged to apply Design Justice and Design Thinking strategies to create equity-focused educational technology innovations that empower student learning. Students will also be challenged to complete a novel design of an equity-focused educational technology application. Students will be expected to have prior background with digital equity perspectives prior to taking this course (see prerequisites)