The State of Education Technology - SURVEY RESULTS ARE IN! vol 5, rel 1

Well, 2016 is upon us – an all of us are back to work trying to remember…

• What we did..

• To do…

• What we do..

• The way we do it…

Alas, motivation comes from within.  So here at Wasabi Roll we strive to ignite the enthusiasm of those who have the most challenges.  With that, we pondered on who would need igniting the most.  Which brings us to the discipline of K12 School Districts.  

THE DISCIPLINE THAT IS K12

Why K12 School Districts?  Besides the fact that most of us have either been through the system, or have a little one going through it now, let us break this down for you... 

SIZE MATTERS

In the corporate world 40,000 users is considered a large enterprise; however, in school District speak, that’s just medium size.  In fact, most school districts start at 20,000 and then go up to 900,000!  They command and coordinate the infrastructure and policies for several tens of thousands of users, students and staff alike. 

SNEAKERS

Now as for the users, well when you combine a technology infrastructure with young users with incredible sophistication and virtually no accountability you end up with a population of hostile users, not the benign users that policy following, accountable corporate citizens your used to, but basically, a hacker-Univ.

KEY FINDINGS

We all know that technology has taken center stage with these personal computing items.  This is no different with the K12 learning environments. Schools across America are at a crossroads as personal devices and technological advancements have proliferated classrooms. Technology is increasingly a significant part of everyday learning, and connectivity has transformed the way students interact with teachers, peers, and curriculum.

Recently in a survey(1**) of 173 district officials, principals, and teachers, and of those surveyed, 75% listed budget limits chief among the three greatest challenges their districts face in providing access to education technology. The second biggest hurdle, for 54% of respondents: inadequate training available for teachers and staff.

CHALLENGES

As far as challenges go, with the majority of the states still funding at levels lower than before the “recession”, it’s no surprise that budgetary limits ranks number one in this list.  Interestingly enough though is items 2^nd and 3^rd on the list, lack of training and teachers resistant to change.  Adopting to an entirely new method of teaching for those who are not exactly technology experts, is no cake walk.  This is especially true when process lacks structures for the introduction to these new devices and applications.

Now number four is not a surprise to many, in adequate infrastructure has plagued K12 for years, if not decades.  What is a surprise is that those surveyed are not only aware of it, but rank it as a top priority.  Even if budgets were ample, or teachers were enthusiastic and trained, more than a third of those surveyed cited the lack of network access as a limiting factor for the introduction to technology in the classroom.

Interestingly enough, 7% of those surveyed said their district doesn’t have regular access to wireless or broadband Internet for their students.

The Age of Privacy is Over... Zukerberg

While technology ubiquity is a rising reality, so goes the concerns over student data privacy.  While some software and service providers make strides to security student anonymity, respondents said vendors are still provided with information like student names, gender, age, etc.

What was shocking is that 2.3% of those surveyed said that student social security numbers and email addresses were provided.(2**)

To make things even more interesting, 14% surveyed said that parents aren’t informed at all of the disclosed information and 4% were even sure of what information is being disclosed.

Federal Education Records and Privacy Act (FERPA) withstanding, this data highlights a clear need for schools and districts to proactively seek clarity on what information is supplied to third parties via educational technology and the efforts taken to secure the data that is in fact shared.

COMMON CORE? - TECH IS AS TECH DOES

Many disruptions to the inaugural tests aligned with Common Core erupted out of states like California, Colorado, Montana, and Rhode Island this spring.  The Associated Press reports that according to Measured Progress, the vendor that administered the exams in Nevada, Montana, and North Dakota, just 37 percent of Nevada students completed computerized Smarter Balanced tests in English/language arts and math, while 76 percent of Montana students did so. And in North Dakota, 88 percent of students completed either computer or paper versions of the exam.

Now, there's a federal education mandate that at least 95 percent of students take these exams. But just how the U.S. Department of Education will handle the participation rates those three states is unclear.

13% of those surveyed said the technology didn’t perform properly, ie., interrupted connections, students being logged out randomly, bandwidth issues, etc.  Not only was infrastructure an issue, but many discovered that third parties that won the contracts may have served better if they could demonstrate they can handle the demands of thousands of users concurrently accessing their system.

LAPTOPS, TABLETS, AND SMARTPHONES.. OH MY…

Now when ask about technology, the top three educational tech tools they found most beneficial to teaching and student learning outcomes, 62% of respondents unsurprisingly listed laptops. The second, well it wasn’t the tablets or personal devices that the media has touted, but the interactive/smart white board at 55%.  Surprise!

Education technology is not an eventuality, it’s here and growing.  Nearly 60% of Sprint’s respondents said that schools are using devices other than laptop and desktops every day (hmmmm I wonder what that leaves?)

While many reports note that technology isn’t really changing the way teacher’s teach, but they are using it to augment how they do teach.

The technologies that most respondents selected as their top three most beneficial gadgets that are used directly by educators are Laptops, Smart Whiteboards, and (like it or not) Tablets. 

FUTURE SO BRIGHT I HAVE TO WEAR SHADES..

While the digital future in the classroom is bright, educators have to ask to take it down a few lumens, for the technology is coming so fast and furious, the teachers are finding it difficult to keep up.  As for the protection of the student information, this will have to become a priority, or some may find their budgets used as fines or legal fees. 

If this is going to work, IT specialist have to, and we mean HAVE TO collaborate with educators to design systems that are not only for them, but with them every step of the way, even after deployment, i.e., provide training as an integral part of the solution and build in some metrics and measuring methods to see post implementation if the desired result is obtained…

 Just say’n…

Source(s):

• http://www.educationdive.com/library/2015-survey-results-technology-in-k12-education/
• http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/state_edwatch/2015/06/measuring_the_impact_of_common-core_test_disruptions_in_three_states.html
• http://readwrite.com/2010/01/09/facebooks_zuckerberg_says_the_age_of_privacy_is_ov

So “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;”

____________________________________________________________

About Rick Ricker

An IT professional with over 23 years experience in Information Security, wireless broadband, network and Infrastructure design, development, and support.

For more information, contact Rick at (800) 399-6085 x502

_________________________________________________________________________

1** The State of Education Technology 2015, Sprint and Education Dive Sept 2015;

2** Note that many said that educators are shying away from using SSN for student IDs and the emails weren’t identified as either school or private addresses.