Edina Digital Age Learning

Rafranz Davis , author of the book, The Missing Voice in EdTech  Conversations, Bringing Diversity into EdTech " was our keynote speaker at the Edina Learning Institute. All of us as teachers have had times where we were NOT innovative, creative, brilliant! She is the first college graduate in her family, and comes from a very supportive close knit family. She comes from a "Minecraft Family," as a way to create as a family, both at home and outside. She loves that she can bring that outside activity into her classroom. As a student, in 5th grade she realized that she couldn't focus in class, as she began to day-dream. She felt like she didn't belong, and didn't have the platform to do creative things. It fueled her desire to become a teacher, to help students just as herself. She remembers the Tandy 1000 and AOL, and the first time she logged on to the Internet. It was the greatest thing ever to have access! It reminded me of waiting 4 hours to ...

Last Saturday, I had a chance to participate in " #SATCHAT ," a weekly education chat on Twitter that takes place at 7:30 am EST. This week's conversation, titled,  "The Missing Voices in EdTech,"  on diversity in Educational Technology, was moderated by Rafranz Davis , a Math and Technology educator from Texas and author of the book by the same name .  During the course of the questions and answers came an exchange regarding a simulation game called " Mission-US- Mission 2: Flight to Freedom ." Produced by New York Public Television with support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, this simulation is intended to give students the experience of being a slave in the 1800's. When Davis posted the link, I followed to see what she was talking about. At first glance, given who the creators were, and the blessing of the National Endowment for the Humanities , I was confused as to why it would be considered an "atrocity." Our dis...