Technology in Correctional Education

You can read my full undergraduate thesis here

At Siena College, I had the opportunity to complete an undergraduate thesis as part of the Standish Honors program. I gained valuable practical experience as part of this work: performing a literature review, working through an IRB approval (which poses particular challenges when working with incarcerated individuals!), and building an Android app from scratch.

One of the things I was most proud of about this work was that I feel I was able to lift up the voices of incarcerated people speaking to their own experiences. At the beginning of every chapter, I incorporated personal accounts (like those pictured below), which were compiled from the anonymous survey responses I collected from men at Albany County Jail. It remains important to me in my work to think about how I can center the experiences of justice impacted people as opposed to relying on my own assumptions or interpretations.

Here are some other highlights from this project:

• Designed and conducted independent multidisciplinary research project on the role of technology in supporting the unique needs of incarcerated students with literacy issues, learning disabilities, and other barriers to traditional classroom settingsh
• Created a working digitalized version of the standard GED preparation classes, to be used on the tablets at Albany County Jail
• Conducted an anonymous survey of people incarcerated at Albany County Jail comparing their educational experience in person and on the tablets, analyzed and disseminated findings as part of my culminating thesis paper

Throughout the process, I was supported by many amazing mentors, including nearly the entire computer science department. In particular, Annie Rody-Wright, my undergraduate thesis advisor, was and continues to be one of my biggest role models.