Study: The Reality Of Mobile Technology In K-12
by TeachThought Staff
The 3rd annual mobile technology in K-12 education report has been made available by IESD, Inc.
The goal of the survey is to help business leaders understand how teachers are using mobile technology. For our part as educators, it offers a chance to see what is actually happening in the public education landscape–at least as far as this data reveals.
A portion of the study is excerpted below. You can view the full report here.
2014 National Survey on Mobile Technology for K-12 Education
“Mobile technology now has a substantial presence in most school districts. 2014 continued the trend of steady growth in mobile technology adoption, with additional growth very likely in the next two years. The number of 1-to-1 mobile implementations has grown but still represents the typical implementation in only about one-fifth of all districts. The chief barrier to wider 1-to-1 adoption seems to be financial, as most districts are interested if they could afford it. District interest in purchasing tablets and/or Chromebooks is also high.
Many districts look to mobile technology to increase student achievement and make learning more engaging and personalized. However, many districts also report challenges in implementing mobile technology related to teacher lack of knowledge or experience, need for professional development and implementation support, and mobile device management issues.
Other Takeaways
Adoption of mobile technology
A large majority (70.8%) of the survey respondents reported that mobile technology had been adopted in about 25% or more of the schools in their district. An additional 9.3% reported that their districts were very likely to adopt mobile technology in the next 1-2 years.
Common methods of making mobile devices available included having multiple classrooms share a cart with a class set of mobile devices and providing one or more classrooms with a small set of mobile devices that students share.
About one-fifth of the districts reported that classrooms have a 1 to 1 ratio of mobile devices to students. However, a large majority of respondents expressed interest in implementing or expanding a 1 to 1 solution using mobile devices if budget allowed.
A large majority of respondents expressed interest in purchasing tablets/Chromebooks for student use.
District policies on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) vary widely. Benefits from mobile technology for student instruction. The most commonly expected and sought after benefits from adopting mobile technology for student instruction included their potential to increase student achievement, be engaging for students, and support personalization of instruction to meet the needs of different students.
Challenges in implementing mobile technology
Respondents frequently identified several challenges to implementing mobile technology, including professional development and implementation support for teachers/teacher lack of knowledge or experience; mobile device management; bandwidth, Wifi connectivity, and/or technology infrastructure; and breakage, damage to devices, repair.
Types of apps desired
Categories of apps most often identified as beneficial to student instruction were digital textbooks, creation tools, and collaboration tools.
Promising practices in effective teacher use of mobile technology.
Respondents described a variety of promising practices across the range of grade levels and in a variety of subject areas. Most commonly, they described uses of mobile technology as a tool for completing assignments; as a tool for online instruction and for whole-group 2014 National Survey on Mobile Technology for K-12 Education instruction; as a platform for course communication; as a way for students to demonstrate learning and/or share their work with the class; and as a student collaboration tool.”
Study: The Reality Of Mobile Technology In K-12