1. AVELA -- A Vision for Engineering Literacy & Access: Understanding Why Technology Alone Is Not Enough
- Author
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Johnson, Kyle, Arroyos, Vicente, Garcia, Celeste, Hussein, Liban, Cora, Aisha, Melaku, Tsewone, Cunningham, Jay L., Shapiro, R. Benjamin, and Iyer, Vikram
- Subjects
Computer Science - Computers and Society ,Computer Science - Human-Computer Interaction - Abstract
Unequal technology access for Black and Latine communities has been a persistent economic, social justice, and human rights issue despite increased technology accessibility due to advancements in consumer electronics like phones, tablets, and computers. We contextualize socio-technical access inequalities for Black and Latine urban communities and find that many students are hesitant to engage with available technologies due to a lack of engaging support systems. We present a holistic student-led STEM engagement model through AVELA - A Vision for Engineering Literacy and Access leveraging culturally responsive lessons, mentor embodied community representation, and service learning. To evaluate the model's impact after 4 years of mentoring 200+ university student instructors in teaching to 2,500+ secondary school students in 100+ classrooms, we conducted 24 semi-structured interviews with college AnonymizedOrganization members. We identify access barriers and provide principled recommendations for designing future STEM education programs., Comment: This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for personal use, not for redistribution
- Published
- 2024