Welcome to Tip #5 in our educator series, designed to guide intentional practice and equity-driven leadership. This week, we explore: ‘update your technology” in order to ensure your teaching tools are relevant, accessible and effective. Updating technology means looking at both hardware and software resources. In today’s educational landscape technology is not merely a matter of convenience it is also a matter of equity in education. When students have outdated tools systemic barriers are reinforced. Updated technology expands access to educational opportunities. It also fosters engagement for students who have been historically marginalized.
Exploring the Meaning
Educators updating technology is not merely a matter of having the latest devices and gadgets. It is about ensuring that the digital tools used align with current pedagogical goals, student needs, and accessibility standards. Updated technology has connections to pedagogy: culturally responsive teaching, trauma-informed care, and narrative pedagogy.
Culturally Responsive Teaching
When educators update their technology they have access to the entire world of resources. This means they can look for diverse representation in the media they share in their classrooms. Updated technology allows educators to bring in multilingual tools, and adaptive platforms. Doing these things honors student culture and identity.
Trauma-informed Care
Modern technology offers the opportunity for educators to offer flexible, low-stress environments to their students. This can take the form of calming interfaces and asynchronous options that enable students to learn in was that provide them comfort and peace. This means a classroom can be both a place where students learn and where they find respite from traumas they may experience outside the classroom.
Narrative Pedagogy
The use of updated modern technology provides educators the opportunity to work with new platforms that support storytelling from diverse voices. Modern technology allows for the use of digital portfolios. It also gives students an opportunity to share their voices and stories through multimedia creations. Part of equity in education involves listening to more voices from more students. Providing students with modern technology allows them to share their voices and stories which benefits the entire classroom.
Classroom Applications
There are several things educators can do in their classrooms when it comes to updating their technology. One thing educators should do is conduct annual tech audits. The audit should make sure the resources used are relevant, accessible, and help increase student engagement. Educators should use things like Microsoft Loop and OneNote Class Notebook because they support real-time collaboration. Finally, outdated software should be replaced with tools with inclusive features such as immersive readers, translation tools, and screen readers. Instead of making all technology decisions on their own, educators should invite students to help design digital learning spaces. This would help students to feel invested in their classrooms and education. Below is a checklist educators can use as they perform their annual technology audits.
Click here to download our Educator Tech Audit Checklist
Conclusion
Educators should view updating technology as a form of care for their students. It lets students know that educators care about the ways in which students learn. Updating technology shows students that learning environments are dynamic, responsive, and designed with student success in mind. This is a good time to invite educators to reflect on their current technology setup and to explore new tools that help them align their teaching with their values. When educators do this, they should share their journey with their peers. By doing so, they help to improve education at large and not only in their classrooms. Finally, educators need to understand that updating technology is not a one-time fix. Updating technology can be part of an ongoing commitment to equity, innovation, and joy in the classroom.
Further Reading
20 Tips for Educators: A Powerful and Informative Series
Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women by Maya Angelou
The Complete Poetry by Maya Angelou
Unleash the Fire Within: Maya Angelou’s Lifegiving Wisdom for Educators
About the Author
Dr. Janeane Davis is Founder and Principal Consultant at Janeane Davis and Associates: Educational Consultants. Most of her writing begins at a well-lit desk where strategy meets storytelling and systems take shape around real lives. Her consulting work centers families, scholars, and institutions committed to equity—and she writes to bring clarity to complex questions, especially those often left unasked.
Desk light on. Pages open. Always listening.