Educators dedicate their time, talent, and effort to uplifting and supporting learners. They are essential to transforming the learning landscape and bringing about more equitable outcomes. Digital Promise works to provide educators the tools, networks, resources, and professional development opportunities that empower them to best serve learners.
Digital Promise joined T4 Education, the World Bank, and Owl Ventures to co-host the Teacher Tech Summit USA, part of a series of virtual events around the world that bring educators together for a day of professional learning to explore the latest topics in classroom tech. This professional learning opportunity shines a spotlight on teachers, giving them the space to demonstrate how they are using technology every day to reach and engage their students. Since 2021, the Teacher Tech Summit has convened more than 40,000 attendees around the topic of classroom tech.
Coinciding with the recommendation of the Office of Educational Technology’s policy report “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning,” Digital Promise believes it is essential to center humans in applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom. Our starting point is that AI systems should support or augment, but never replace, a teacher.
Foundational AI knowledge is necessary to understand the social and ethical implications of AI and to mitigate risks of bias. To further support AI literacy for educators, Digital Promise created a new page sharing our current work on the topic and highlighting a series of blog posts and resources.
Competency-based micro-credentials have provided learners with new ways of engaging and verifying their skills. Once a novel idea, micro-credentials are now a valued part of a robust credentialing ecosystem that continues to evolve.
Over the last decade, Digital Promise’s work has resulted in almost 35,000 registered users who have earned more than 20,000 micro-credentials. These micro-credentials have addressed topics such as computational thinking, inclusive innovation, supporting students in digital learning environments, refugee education, financial literacy, media literacy, culturally diverse and responsive instruction, social-emotional learning, and so much more. Users have found success in finding the micro-credentials that best suit their needs using the Micro-credential Explorer and Digital Promise Micro-credential Platform.
Talladega County Schools in Alabama offers a proofpoint of what it looks like for a district to embed Computational Thinking (CT) Pathways into the fabric of its schools.
As hosts of our League of Innovative Schools spring convening, the district showed how students can engage in CT activities on devices, in their English and history classes, in science and math, when they visit the library, and in their health science elective. Importantly, CT skills and practices are not confined to a single computer science elective or afterschool activity; they are embedded across the curriculum in every course students take. To accomplish this, it’s important to provide the coaching necessary to prepare educators to bring computational thinking to their practice.
2022 Annual Report