Groups close digital divide for Southfield students

SOUTHFIELD — The United Way for Southeastern Michigan’s Tech United Initiative aims to bridge the digital divide among students by providing technology to schools to amplify learning through their team of southeast Michigan executives and IT professionals.

Tech United has raised more than $246,000 to support the technology needs of students and has provided grants to fund the purchase of over 8,000 laptops for students.

The latest recipients are the students of Stevenson Elementary, with the gift of 215 Chromebooks, making the ratio 1-to-1 of students to devices.

In addition to the 215 Chromebooks, Tech United recently donated 446 devices to the River Rouge School District and has 600 additional devices that will be distributed to school districts across the state.

The need for technology within schools has grown greatly since the pandemic, and equipping students with the right tools to advance their learning is critical, school officials said.

“We are now, because of the pandemic, a blended learning community, which means that there’s a fair amount of learning that occurs online,” said Stevenson Principal Tonya Hickman. “Because the pandemic happened so fast, it was one of the biggest barriers that we had every day. We had parents calling in about broken devices or there were connectivity issues with the Wi-Fi. Those were the areas that were of the most concern for us during that particular time,” said Hickman, who could not attend the gifting ceremony because she was accepting a Hero Award from the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association.

Hickman emphasized the importance of closing the digital gap between students because doing so also allows the school to close the learning gap.

“We are most appreciative to the United Way of Southeastern Michigan, Tech United and Comerica for creating smiles and for allowing us to extend our coding program here at Stevenson,” she said.

Stevenson Elementary uses an online assessment tool called i-Ready daily for 30 minutes. I-Ready takes their test scores and curates an individualized learning pathway to help students catch up in areas where they may have fallen behind due to interrupted learning and challenges brought on by the pandemic.

In addition to this curriculum, Stevenson also has an after-school program called Girls Who Code, which is meant to encourage girls to explore their interests in STEM fields. Hickman added that the school would like to implement more coding programs with these new devices.

Fifth grade student and Girls Who Code member Makayla Davis delivered a speech during the dedication.

“In this program, we learn how to interact with computers, talk about how to code and what it means. We make characters talk, design various games, and make characters move around the screen,” she said. “The devices donated today will assist us with expanding our STEM opportunities at Stevenson. As stated, our group plans on providing all scholars access to the devices and teaching them how to code. We are extremely excited and can’t wait.”

Andre Ebron, the senior director of diversity, equity and inclusion at United Way, explained that the dedication was made possible through Project Refresh. Comerica Bank partnered with Tech United and took laptops they would normally dispose of and worked with their e-waste provider to monetize those devices so that they could get new devices that meet the needs of the students.

Ebron encourages any corporation that wants to partner with Tech United to donate decommissioned devices or to work with their e-waste provider to get recoupable dollars to buy the specific devices the school needs.

“The most exciting thing for me about Friday’s distribution is that we get a chance to leave knowing that every student in the building will have a device,” Ebron said. “They’ll have a 1-to-1 ratio, student to device, and that builds power within the school to be able to No. 1, increase the rigor of the curriculum, but then also not asking the students to do the coursework without being properly resourced.”