Education

65% Of Teachers Used EdTech Every Day In 2019. Here’s Why That Matters.


Suddenly, the nation’s living rooms and kitchen tables are the center of learning for most of America’s 50 million public school students. Before this massive transition, teachers and students were using digital learning tools in their classrooms more extensively than most people realized. Our rapid and messy shift to learning at home for an extended period of time would be even harder if not. Even so, big challenges remain.

Last September, Gallup and NewSchools Venture Fund (the organization I lead) released the results of a survey of a nationally representative sample of teacher and student perceptions of digital learning tools. The data provides clues to the reasons behind some of the bright spots and challenges in the country’s transition to distance learning.

Contrary to some caricatures of teachers as resistant to technology, the survey revealed that large majorities of teachers incorporate digital learning into their classrooms almost every day:

  • 65% of teachers reported using digital learning tools in their classroom every day. 87% said they used them at least a few days a week. Only 7% said they did not use them at all.
  • 89% of students reported using digital learning tools at least a few days a week in class. Nearly 70% said they used them to complete lessons outside of school.

As I wrote here at Forbes on March 20, the ingenuity of educators has been on full display over the last two weeks as teachers worked to help their students keep learning in the midst of the Coronavirus outbreak. In the initial days, parents were eager to find new resources that might work well at home.

But many teachers and schools created plans that blend digital tools their students already know how to use with print materials and activities. With so much uncertainty swirling around kids and families, this familiarity is helping ease the transition to learning at home for an extended period.

But there are significant issues to tackle.

Though digital learning tools were being used nearly every day in most classrooms, the majority of students do not have their own devices, but instead share laptops and tablets with classmates. A significant portion of low-income students also lack reliable access to a device or connectivity outside of school:

  • Only 41% of all students said they were assigned their own device by their school, and only 29% of those with family incomes under $25,000 said so.
  • 17% of teachers thought their colleagues might avoid assigning homework requiring digital tools because of concerns about students’ access to devices or the Internet outside of school.

Access gaps are core to the equity concerns expressed by many school systems and advocates. But they can be addressed and efforts are already underway, from chromebook and tablet distribution to offers of free service from cellular and internet service providers.

The needs of students with learning differences are also of concern as school systems and teachers adapt to the new reality. In the NewSchools-Gallup survey, special education teachers were among the most optimistic about the ability of digital learning tools to support student success, but were less satisfied with their availability:

  • Between 70% and 80% of teachers agreed a sufficient number of effective digital tools existed for Math, Reading and English, while only 58% agreed for Special Education.

With some schools closed for the rest of the academic year and most others in limbo, special education professionals are deploying the full weight of their expertise and creativity to plan for the delivery of services to their students in a remote learning environment.

With the intensity of the public health crisis, it can be easy to forget we are still in the early stage of the educational response.

Many states and districts are still struggling to tackle the most urgent challenges. Their efforts will receive a boost from the bipartisan CARES Act, which passed on March 27 and allocated $13.4 billion to K-12 public education. The money can be used for a wide range of purposes, including devices, hotspots, and meeting the needs of students with learning differences.

For all the energy and activity of the last two weeks, the work is just beginning.


As we enter the third full week of the shift from learning in classrooms to learning at home, here’s a request for policymakers, philanthropists, think tank analysts, and ed tech investors and companies:

Resist framing this moment in apocalyptic or utopian terms; neither as a fatal blow to this generation’s long term success, nor as the glorious dawn of virtual learning.

Let’s lower the temperature of our rhetoric and tether our attention to concrete challenges. There is plenty to do: keeping children learning and feeling secure; closing acute gaps in devices and connectivity; meeting the needs of students with learning differences; helping reduce the isolation inherent in learning from home; and elevating the needs of the most vulnerable kids and families in all of these efforts. Meaningful progress on these fronts will take focus, hard work, flexibility, and persistence from all of us.



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