School & District Management

Survey: Education Holding Its Ground on Tech. Integration

By Ian Quillen — June 27, 2012 1 min read
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Preliminary results from a new survey of K-12 and postsecondary educators shows they perceive their schools and institutions to be holding their ground when it comes to integrating new educational technology, if not actually gaining it.

These first results from the 2012 version of the “Vision K-20 Survey,” the third annual version issued by the Software and Information Industry Association, perhaps suggest that, in tight budget times, educators are prioritizing maintaining funding for technology.

“In spite of all the cutbacks, the schools haven’t fallen behind,” said Susan Meell, the chief executive officer of MMS Education, a consulting group that partnered with the SIIA to help administer the study, during a press conference at ISTE 2012 in San Diego Tuesday. “They haven’t increased, but they’ve maintained.”

Preliminary data from the survey also shows that the kinds of technology implementation educators were most satisfied with in 2011 were the ones where growth of implementation decreased in 2012, Meell said. Meanwhile, benchmarks where educators were least satisfied, particularly those around assessment, differentiated instruction, and enterprise (or systems management) tools, increased in 2012.

For the first time, the survey also asked respondents questions about their vision for an ideal level of implementation in different kinds of educational technology. The purpose of that was two-fold, according to Karen Billings, the vice president of the SIIA’s education division:

1. The questions allowed the SIIA to question and refine its own definition of ideal implementation for different kinds of educational technology; and

2. They will in the future allow survey analysts to determine whether educators’ expectations are changing and thus influencing how they respond to questions about satisfaction of implementation.

So far, more than 1,600 respondents have participated in the survey, which is still open for response, and will be released in its final form in July. That number is more than three times the number of educators who responded last year, according to a press release.

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Digital Education blog.