EDUCATION TEAM

CURRENT EDUCATION TEAM (2023)

Dharma Dailey, Katya Yefimova , Tiffany Barbar, and Annuska Zolyomi.

We are grateful for the support of many other educators including but not limited to the UW Bothell Office of Connect Learning, Mark Chen, May Lin, Kara Adams, Bill Erdley, Terryl Ross, Cindy Atman, and Jennifer Turns.

AUTUMN 2022 EDUCATION TEAM

Statement from December 2023:

As of Autumn 2022, when we as technology design students and educators at the University of Washington Bothell began to explore Digital Equity work in our state, many people in Washington state were working on local digital equity plans. As we started DDE, digital equity planning was still taking shape, the metrics of success were still being solidified, and the details of on-the-ground provisioning were still in conversation. This made it an interesting time to investigate this emerging field. We view the media we have created for this project over a ten-week span as a snapshot of the reformulations taking place in how we assure that everyone in our society is able to exercise the right to communicate. What is being put in place now sets the course for the next decade of interventions and beyond. 

At the same time, this project fills a gap perceived by our technology design students and educators in exploring questions of equity within curriculums that prepare students for careers in the technology industry. Because producing media is our means of such exploration, students have had ample opportunity to exercise the skills and concepts that prepare them for tech industry jobs. Yet, through our chosen topic, we have also been able to explore factors shaping people’s communication experience that reside beyond the tech industry. We have learned quite a bit about the design of Digital Equity interventions which are in no small part the result of relationships and processes that look quite different from how technology design is typically introduced to technology design students and how it is conceived of in their future workplaces. 

By taking on this topic, we have been able to apply a broader lens to technology design inclusive of public sector decision-making and provisioning and inclusive of program design and execution among grassroots non-profits and local governments. By featuring the people who make Digital Equity happen in Washington state, we have been able to elevate the individuals, roles, relationships, and coalitions that are defining the field.

Dear Digital Equity came about through conversations between Dharma Dailey, Sabrina Roach, Angela Castenda, Mark Chen, and Layla Taylor over the summer of 2022.