It looks like an apple for the teacher just
doesn't cut it anymore, unless it can access the 'net.
According to a poll from the Leading Education
by Advancing Digital (LEAD) Commission, teachers and parents say schools should
be doing more to improve access to technology in education, with access to the
Internet high on the list.
The vast majority of parents and teachers said they would rather spend money on Internet-connected digital devices than the same amount on text books.
The
study was released Monday in advance of a Tuesday symposium at Stanford Tuesday
that will discuss the study findings and include FCC Chairman Julius
Genachowski, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and others talking about current
barriers to and opportunities of high-tech classrooms.
Broadband
deployment, education and adoption is viewed by the FCC as one of the key
opportunities -- and the lack of it a key barrier -- to a first class education
in a digital world.
More
than half of teachers (61%) and about the same percentage of parents
(63%) polled said they thought that the country was "behind the
curve" when it came to public school use of technology.
Other
findings include:
- 82
percent of teachers and 71 percent of parents believe a greater use of technology
would be helpful in connecting learning inside and outside of the classroom - 89
percent of teachers and 76 percent of parents would choose to spend $200 per
student for an Internet-connected device over $200 per student for new science
textbooks - 82
percent of teachers believe that they are not receiving the necessary training
to use technology to its fullest potential in the classroom - 95
percent of teachers and 90 percent of parents believe that home access to high-speed
Internet gives students a big or moderate advantage when it comes to classroom
performance.
The
poll was a phone survey of 883 parents of K-12 students conducted Aug. 7-13
(margin of error 3.3 percentage points) and of 812 public school K-12 teachers
via online survey Aug. 9-15 margin of error 3.4). It was conducted by Hart
Research for the LEAD Commission, according to a spokesperson for the
commission, which was charged by the FCC and DOE with coming up with a gameplan for improving use of technology in the schools.
The commission combines input from teachers, parents, school officials, tech leaders and others and is co-chaired by Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger; James Coulter of TPG Capital; Former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Common Sense Media CEO James Steyer.
Steyer said Monday that he expects to have that blueprint ready for release by November. "We are thinking very big and very boldly," in this blueprint, he said, not just "moving chess pieces around." He said at the end of the day, the results of the study show parents and teachers understand it is critical to get high-tech in the classroom, so the answer becomes does the country have the will to do it.
The
FCC and Obama administration have been promoting broadband as an educational
imperative, including through subsidies and incentives to build out broadband
to schools and libraries and pushing for digital textbooks to replace the
tree-heavy backpacks currently weighing kids down.
Cable
operators have been doing their part through low-cost broadband offerings to
low-income parents of school-aged kids, based on the Comcast Internet Essentialprogram.
Genachowski
is a founding board member of Common Sense Media, which promotes technological
tools to help parents manage their kids' media consumption.
