Current
Digital Transformation
The digital transformation of teaching and learning can pull us at greater scale into more effective learner-centered frameworks.
Audiences
Educators, Policymakers, Researchers, School and System Leaders
Topics
AI and Emerging Tech, Evidence-Based EdTech, Pathways and Economic Mobility, Systems and Leadership
Learning Environments
Adult and Workforce Learning, Early Childhood Learning, Global Education, K-12, Postsecondary Education
Overview
Today’s businesses know that driving innovation is integral to succeeding not just in the present, but more importantly in the decades to come. Through the years, the innovation of digital technologies has transformed entire industries. Now it’s time to put those technologies to use and apply that same mentality to transform our schools. We need digital transformation of teaching and learning at scale across the United States.
Digital transformation can pull K-12 education into new learner-centered constructs that accelerate learning, address historic inequities, and help close historic learning gaps. Moreover, it will ensure that schools are prepared the next time a natural disaster or health crisis disrupts in-person learning.
Embracing Digital Transformation in Education
Digital Promise’s belief that digital transformation must be the rule and not the exception across the country is the animating force for “Breaking With the Past: Embracing Digital Transformation in Education.” It looks forward to the future when we will have harnessed the power of technology in a coherent and scaffolded way to solve longstanding challenges created by the traditional approach to education, including its inability to deliver equitable opportunities and outcomes generation after generation.
Our learners can’t wait for many more tomorrows to come and go without a broad national commitment to breaking the century-old framework for education and replacing it with frameworks that are more learner-centered, personalized, and effective. Digital technologies applied skillfully to teaching and learning might deliver on that possibility at long last.
Suggested Citation
Brizard, J.‐C., (2023, April). Breaking with the past: Embracing digital transformation in education. Digital Promise. https://doi.org/10.51388/20.500.12265/176
We hope readers leave the publication with an understanding of:
- How the traditional one-size-fits-all approach to teaching and learning compares to more learner-centered, personalized, and motivating frameworks; why we need to transition to them at scale; and how digital technologies now enable that scaling.
- Why educational technology is not a silver bullet, but rather an enabler of powerful pedagogy delivered by teachers, who are the heart and soul of the digital transformation of classroom learning.
- Specific components of systems and the education ecosystem that we need to build out with coherence, coordination, and the participation of school districts, state agencies, philanthropies, and others to support and sustain digital transformation.
50% of teachers cite lack of training as a major obstacle to effective technology integration.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, 2024
Digital Transformation Framework
Digital Promise’s Digital Transformation Framework is a set of principles, guidelines, and policy recommendations designed to bridge the digital divides at the state level, for K-12 systems, and for higher education.
By using the Digital Transformation Framework, school and system leaders can establish a foundation capable of not only transforming current teaching practices and learning experiences, but also future-proofing their schools for the evolving technological landscape. And, states can use the framework to expand programs to ensure all learners have the opportunity to fully participate in the digital world.
The Digital Transformation Framework is guided by three core principles:
- Collaborative Innovation: A belief in collaboration with those most impacted, underserved, and underrepresented, grounded in the ideals of targeted universalism, and centered on the voices of those historically and systematically excluded.
- Sustainability: A belief that these efforts are mission-critical and society-building, requiring thoughtful planning for the long term to ensure enduring impact.
- Continuous Improvement: A commitment to never being satisfied and always striving for more equitable outcomes efficiently and effectively.
A Framework for Digital Transformation
Dive deeper into the context behind the Digital Transformation Framework in our white paper, A Framework for Digital Equity. The publication explains why we believe it’s past time for us to look at digital transformation differently than we have before, and why we need new frameworks to achieve it.
- 90% of jobs demand digital skills, with 95% of jobs being at the entry level. Source: National Skills Coalition, 2023
- 32 Million Americans have limited or no digital literacy skills, including half of Black and Latino/e workers Source: DigitalUS Coalition, 2020
Delivering on the Promise of Digital Equity
Digital knowledge and skills are a requirement for success in today’s world. But digital skill gaps negatively impact individuals’ future job opportunities and earning potential, particularly those who have been historically and systematically excluded.
“Delivering on the Promise of Digital Equity” is designed to help state and local community leaders find effective ways for investing this funding in K-12 education to increase digital equity. It provides:
- An overview of what we know about the digital skills and knowledge necessary for success
- An outline of where the largest gaps exist
- Proposed solutions (“9 Big Plays”) to close those gaps, based on Digital Promise’s research and policy efforts and our direct work with district and school leaders
Our goal is to help learners transition successfully from K-12 to postsecondary and other pathways to achieve greater well-being and economic security.
