The report lists five "transformative factors" that are increasing the demand for digital tools and resources within classroom instruction:
- The influence of the Common Core State Standards movement;
- Increasing use of mobile technologies by teachers, administrators, and parents;
- Stagnation in ed-tech funding is leading to a search for innovative, low-cost strategies;
- Digital tools and resources are becoming more common outside of the classroom;
- Pressure from employers for better skilled employees.
I found the third of these factors confounding, initially. Why would continued stagnation in ed-tech funding lead to increased demand for digital tools and resources? Their explanation is that many districts have abandoned plans that were developed in the days of more abundant funding and held on to in the hopes that budgets would increase soon. Recognition that technology funding is still insufficient and will be for quite some time is causing districts to re-think old plans and search for new ones. The example they give is administrators' attitudes toward bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies.
The 2012 survey also asked about teachers' use of digital content in their classrooms. One interesting result is that middle- and high-school math and science teachers have a much greater use of items such as online curricula, animations, digital textbooks, videos, virtual labs, and simulations. While there are many reasons for this difference, it parallels a greater adoptions of "flipped" learning strategies among that same group of teachers. The report calls middle- and high-school math and science teachers "the new pace cars" for the adoption of digital content."When asked in 2010 if they would allow their students to use their own devices at school for academic purposes, only 22 percent of principals said that was likely, 63 percent said it was unlikely for their school. In 2012, we see proof of this mobile device style digital conversion happening right from the principal’s office. Today, over a third of principals (36 percent) say that a new Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to school policy for students is likely. The opposing view has now dropped to 41 percent. At the district level, an even more dramatic shift has taken place in the views of administrators on these BYOD policies. In 2011, 52 percent of district administrators said that they did not allow students to use their own mobile devices at school. This year, only 35 percent are still holding on to that district wide policy statement, with 32 percent saying that the use of student owned devices should be at the discretion of the classroom teacher." (Page 8)
Finally, a chart that needs almost no explanation:
