EducationWeek released a report this past May titled “Laptops and Learning: 5 Trends in K-12 Education in 5 Charts.” What is revealed in these charts is interesting, especially if you are someone like me who is frustrated by the implementation gap between a young learner’s desire to learn virtually and an adult learning leader’s ability to facilitate that type of learning.
A closer look at what these charts show us follows in narrative form:
Chart #1. Most educators report that all their students have access to a digital learning device.
“Eighty-five percent of teachers, principals, and district leaders say all the students in their classrooms, schools, and districts have a school-issued digital device, such as a Chromebook or an iPad.
Another 5 percent of educators say their schools don’t provide such devices but all their students have access to devices provided by their parents or other sources.
Only 9 percent of educators report that their students do not have access to a device provided by their schools and may not have any devices at all.”
Chart #2. Nearly half of educators say that students at all grade levels can take school-provided devices home.
“Forty-seven percent of teachers, principals, and district administrators say that their schools or districts provide devices for students in all grade levels to take home.
Nearly 3 out of 10 say that only high school and middle school students are permitted to take their devices home with them.
Only 5 percent indicate that only high school students can take their learning devices outside of school. Due to the financial cost of such technology, there might be concerns that younger students will lose or misplace devices. Educators and parents may also worry that students in the elementary grades will get too much screen time if they are allowed to bring devices home.”
Chart #3. Almost half of educators say expanded use of computing devices has changed teaching and learning a lot.
“Nearly half of teachers, principals, and district leaders (49 percent) say that the expanded use of school-issued digital devices during the pandemic changed teaching and learning in their schools a lot.
Another 32 percent indicate that using technology like iPads or Chromebooks has somewhat changed the educational experience. Fifteen percent say teaching and learning has only changed a little bit.
Just 2 percent think that teaching and learning haven’t changed at all.”
Chart #4. Most schools or districts have provided professional development to help teachers integrate digital devices into instruction.
“Roughly two-thirds of teachers, principals, and district leaders (67 percent) say that their schools or districts have provided professional development to help teachers learn how to integrate the use of digital devices into instruction.
Another 15 percent say that teachers at their schools or districts were provided this training, but they did not participate, oversee it, or observe it.
Still, nearly one out of 5 educators (18 percent) say that their schools or districts don’t provide any professional development in this area. Although some teachers will figure out successful strategies on their own, a lack of training opportunities can potentially fuel resistance to integrating technology into the classroom or leave teachers to struggle through a trial and error process that impedes the implementation of 1-to-1 computing strategies.”
Chart #5. When it comes to integrating digital devices into instruction, most educators say the quality of PD during the pandemic wasn’t high.
“According to educators, there’s substantial room to improve on the PD that districts or schools provided during the pandemic to help teachers learn to integrate digital devices into instruction.
Forty-four percent of teachers, principals, and district leaders rated it as high quality and just 5 percent saw it as being of very high quality.
Another 41 percent characterized it as mediocre.
Although just 10 percent said the quality of training on integrating the use of digital devices was low or very low, the survey findings raise concerns about future progress. When PD is seen as mediocre at best, educational technology can fall short of its promise and teacher buy-in can be imperiled. Despite widespread access to digital devices and significant changes to instruction, ineffective PD could ultimately limit technology’s impact on student achievement.”
It seems like device access data is debatable, given the NAEP numbers I shared yesterday. This survey suggest devices are not only accessible to young learners, but also accessible for anytime, anywhere learning. Yesterday’s story about NAEP struggles suggested a different story when it came to device access, especially between high performing learners and low performers.
Regarding the claim adult educators make when they say expanded use of computing devices has changed teaching and learning a lot, it would be interesting to see what the young learners these adult educators work with daily have to say. My guess is the young learners’ percentage agreeing to this claim would be less than half.
Finally, the gap between professional development access and quality is striking and troubling at the same time. It’s like the training hasn’t impacted practice, and that seems to sum up why most traditional schools have scrapped their virtual offerings in favor of the good old classroom.
Traditionalists have chosen to stay where they were before the pandemic because they just couldn’t figure out how to produce learning in a different, and maybe a better, way.
Til tomorrow. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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