Tablets accounted for more than one-third of all client devices shipped to education institutions in the United States in the last calendar year. That volume represents a doubling of tablet purchases from the previous year, according to a new report. And the growth won't stop there.
Smart phones are expected to overtake feature phones in worldwide shipments for the first time this year. According to a new forecast, year-over-year growth in smart phones will approach 33 percent in 2013 and continue strong for the next five years.
Students prioritize the use of "a variety of digital learning tools such as mobile devices" over Internet access, according to From Chalkboards to Tablets: The Emergence of the K-12 Learner, a new report from Project Tomorrow.
Despite increasingly widespread adoption of technologies in virtually every aspect of K-12 education, significant challenges are preventing widespread effective implementation. According to researchers, though some of those challenges are systemic and some related to the technologies themselves, teachers and education leaders share in the blame as well.
Cloud computing and mobile technology are the top technologies to watch in education, according to this year's K-12 Horizon Report, an annual publication from the New Media Consortium that highlights developing trends in ed tech. And this year, the report suggests, they could go mainstream.
- By Stephen Noonoo
- 05/23/13
Given the unique challenges faced by preK-3 teachers, teacher effectiveness at those levels should not be evaluated on student reading and math achievement alone but should also account for how young children actually learn, according to a new report.
A university study comparing learning management systems has concluded that the latest crop of learning management systems evaluated have made "significant progress" since the assessments started in 2005. However, one of the report's authors noted, "We believe much more needs to be done."
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 05/13/13
Even as Apple's iPad shipments surge worldwide, its dominance of the tablet market is less secure than it once was. In the first quarter of 2013, its market share dipped just below 40 percent, as Samsung, ASUS, and Microsoft moved upward.
Most elementary and secondary students are using mobile devices in their studies, either in the classroom or at home. And, according to a new study, the majority would like to be able to use them more in class.
A new survey from the Learning First Alliance and Grunwald Associates suggests that parents of young children, girls, and students who are required to use portable or mobile devices in school are more likely to see the educational potential of such devices.