Digital Learning in High-needs Schools: A Critical Approach to Technology Access and Equity in Prek-12

Digital Learning in High-Needs Schools examines the challenges and affordances that arise when high-needs school communities integrate educational technologies into their unique settings. Although remote, blended, and networked learning are ubiquitous today, a number of cultural, economic, and political realities―from the digital divide and digital literacy to poverty and language barriers―affect our most vulnerable and underresourced teachers and students. This book uses critical theory to compassionately scrutinize and unpack the systemic issues that impact high-needs schools’ implementation of digital learning tools. Incisive sociocultural analyses across fifteen original chapters explore the intersection of society, technology, people, politics, and education in high-needs school contexts. Informed by real-world cases pertaining to technology infrastructure, formative feedback, Universal Design for Learning, and more, these chapters illuminate how best practices emerge from culturally responsive and context-specific foundations.

Heejung An is Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Professional Studies in the College of Education at William Paterson University of New Jersey, USA.

David A. Fuentes is Interim Associate Dean and Professor in the College of Education at William Paterson University of New Jersey, USA.