Date of Award
Spring 2016
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Global Honors
First Advisor
Huatong Sun
Abstract
As entities from governmental and nongovernmental sectors search for means of developing underserved localities, public-private partnerships have been built to provide education technology to primary schools. In the current neoliberal, digital age, information and communication technology (ICT) is widely perceived as a value-implicit differentiator because of the information it can access and construct for its users. To further understand the implications of public-private partnerships in ICT initiatives occurring in American elementary schools, this thesis reports a study of the initial implementation of the U.S. White House ConnectED Initiative’s grant in an inner city Los Angeles school, sponsored by Apple Incorporated. Questions of actor positionality, the local school’s definitions of success, the outcomes of private collaboration with the school, and pedagogical implications of ICT in question are answered through interviews of administration and teachers. Findings demonstrate that, in this case, this specific collaborative partnership and ICT is facilitating a shift in pedagogy to an individualized learning construction. Among the few early studies on the ConnectED grant project in schools, this study carves new ground by critically examining the outcomes of private-local collaboration and the ICT which was implemented.
Recommended Citation
Drohman, Kathryn J., "The Value of Technology Grants in Schools: A Case Study on the Connected Initiative in an Inner City Los Angeles Primary School" (2016). Global Honors Theses. 38.
https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/gh_theses/38