Enhancing student engagement in the era of Digital Fluency

As educators, we are all familiar with some variation on the adage, “Tell me and I’ll forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand.” This adage underscores the importance of active learning in education. In today's digital landscape, students are immersed in technology that can both enhance and hinder their engagement with physics. While digital tools offer innovative ways to involve students in learning, they can also present distractions and exacerbate the “digital divide” based on disparities in access to resources. At Penn State Greater Allegheny, where more than 40% of students receive Pell Grants, minimizing course costs is essential for student success. Through the campus’s “Digital Fluency” initiative, for the last several years every incoming student has been provided with an iPad. Having access to this shared technology has fostered new avenues for student collaboration and engagement. This talk will explore how open-source and widely licensed institutional software can be leveraged to transform physics instruction, making learning more interactive while maintaining an inclusive and cost-effective educational environment.