In a recent national survey, over 1200 K–12 teachers weighed in on their classroom use of educational technology. Common Sense Media and Rockman et al teamed up to conduct this survey to provide an overview of teachers’ experiences with and perceptions of digital tools for increasing student engagement, knowledge, and skills. The survey focused on four major topics:
- Use of digital tools and their effectiveness on student learning
- Digital citizenship curricula and competencies
- Access to educational technology for learning
- Policies related to educational technology
Some of the top findings included the following:
- 80% of teachers say they are the deciders of what digital tools get used in the classroom.
- Almost all teachers use a variety of digital tools in their classrooms.
- And the most widely used tools are video-streaming platforms and productivity or presentation tools.
- Interestingly, there were significant gaps between the digital tools used by teachers and what tools they said were effective.
- Higher numbers of students at Title I schools lack adequate home access to the internet or digital devices for doing homework.
- About 90% of teachers report having professional development in the last year that addressed classroom technology use; yet, only 40% of those teachers found it to be highly effective.
- Students’ ability to critically evaluate online information was teachers’ most frequent technology-related concern.
- Over 90% of teachers believe digital citizenship curricula are effective in influencing positive online behaviors by students, and over 70% teach some aspect of digital citizenship.
- The presence of digital citizenship policies was correlated with digital citizenship instruction.
Details about these and other findings along with discussion of their implications, can be found here and within the report, The Common Sense Census: The State of the 21st-Century Classroom, 2019, authored by Vanessa Vega (Rockman et al) and Michael Robb (Common Sense Media).
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Vega, V., & Robb, M. B. (2019). The Common Sense census: The state of the 21st-century classroom, 2019. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense Media.