Digital Promise Launches New Lab Focused on Promoting Equitable Innovation
The nonprofit Digital Promise has launched a new initiative designed to bring cutting-edge innovation to schools.
The program, funded in part by a $20 million gift from MacKenzie Scott last year, will bring together educators, technologies, and researchers under the leadership of its director, Jessica Tsang.
Tsang is a former consultant and researcher, and previously led an education research and development grant portfolio with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
“The FutureLab is committed to innovations that have the potential to transform learning and teaching positively in the time frame of five to 10 years,” Tsang said. “We’ll be focusing primarily on ideas that look beyond the existing assumptions of schooling.”
Tsang said plans for the program include working closely with a network of diverse organizations and stakeholders to conduct inclusive R&D and to support conversations about how to promote equity in the development of emergent technologies, such as AI.
Equity will continue to be a central challenge as we move forward, so we must center it early on and throughout the development of innovations.Jessica Tsang, director, Digital Promise FutureLab
This comes at a time when school districts are struggling to find strategies that will help students make up academic ground lost in the pandemic, and amid persistent concerns about inequitable access to technology.
Those challenges explain why the FutureLab’s work “is so important right now,” Tsang said. New research and technological advances “open the door to rapid change” in education.
The FutureLab’s funding comes in part from MacKenzie Scott, a philanthropist who initiated a multi-billion giving campaign across multiple sectors, including education, after her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The first few months after the launch of the FutureLab will be focused on outreach and engaging with potential partners, Tsang said. Although she is currently a team of one in the strategy-setting phase, there are plans to bring more members onboard once specific initiatives are ready to be piloted.
The FutureLab will also host prize competitions for new innovations that serve educators and students, particularly those of marginalized communities, as well as publishing a series of papers in education research and innovation. These papers will focus on topics like multilingual learners, digital equity, and assessment.
“We have a responsibility to build learning systems that enable learners to thrive in a challenging world,” Tsang said. “Equity will continue to be a central challenge as we move forward, so we must center it early on and throughout the development of innovations.”
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