Zócalo Public Square

Even as digital technology has grown more sophisticated, accessible, and integral to our lives, social inequality has cast a deeper shadow across the United States in recent decades. Getting a quality education has become ever more essential for individual success and fulfillment. But can tech-enhanced education help break down—or perhaps even erase—our widening social divisions? That question was unpacked by a panel at a Zócalo/Arizona State University event titled “Can Digital Learning Dismantle the American Class System?” at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles. Moderator Goldie Blumenstyk, senior writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, was joined by retired superintendent of the Coachella Valley Unified School District Darryl Adams, college provost at the University of Maryland University College Marie Cini, Arizona State University president Michael Crow, and Google chief education evangelist Jaime Casap to discuss how digital education can c