TES Global, digital education company and home to the world’s largest online teacher network, today published the findings of its second annual Teachers and Technology Survey. Conducted in January and February 2016, the survey gathered opinions on classroom technology from nearly 1,000 American teachers.

For the second year in a row, the survey revealed near saturation of education technology; however, 2016 figures show that adoption of open educational resource in particular appears to be accelerating, with 73% of survey respondents reporting that they now use open resources more often than textbooks.

Adoption of OER has been buoyed by teacher word-of-mouth, as well as recent regulatory shifts. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Education issued new regulation that requires all copyrightable intellectual property created with grant funds to have an open license. According to a 2015 report from Hewlett, Creative Commons-licensed works have increased from 50 million in 2006 to 1.18 billion in 2015.

This year’s survey also provides a window into the uses of technology in the classroom. The data suggests that application of technology is broadening beyond its historic focus on intervention and remediation, and that adoption of online communication tools has reached a significant tipping point through mainstream adoption of technology by parents.

84% report that they are using technology to deliver whole-group instruction; 74% use it for differentiated instruction.
70% of teachers report that they are using technology to communicate with parents, reflecting a perennial focus on parent engagement – and confirming the broad-based adoption of online tools like Remind and ClassDojo.
The majority (93%) agrees that technology has most impacted the way they approach time management, as well as instructional delivery (88%).
Access to hardware also appears to be accelerating. This year’s survey highlights an increase in access to hardware, and a substantial drop in connectivity challenges.

Just 27% indicated that they lacked enough computers and tablets, although 37% say this is still the most wanted technology in their classroom.
16% claim that internet connectivity is a barrier to successful use of technology in the classroom, compared to 35% in 2015.
25% of the teachers surveyed would most like to see game-based technology in their classroom above any other single technology, including laptops.
10% of teachers would most like to see virtual or augmented reality headsets enter the classroom, a 5% increase from last year.
“We are thrilled to see improvements around access to technology and high-quality open resources,” said Rob Grimshaw, chief executive officer of TES Global. “Arming teachers with the tools they need to succeed is the right way to ensure that innovative technologies can impact student performance.”

Keywords

educational technology · OER research · online education · open licenses · US Department of Education