Report: Most Districts Have Deployed Mobile Tech, Want More

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 05/29/14

Eighty-two percent of districts are "highly interested" in launching or expanding a 1:1 technology initiative within the next two years, according to a new report from Amplify and IESD.

The report, the "2014 National Survey on Mobile Technology for K-12 Education," also found that the number of districts reporting that at least one-quarter of their schools had deployed mobile devices had risen to 71 percent, up from 60 percent in 2013. Forty-four percent of districts surveyed said that approximately 75 percent of their schools had deployed mobile technology.

"The most commonly expected and sought after benefits from adopting mobile technology for student instruction," wrote the report's author, "included their potential to increase student achievement, be engaging for students, and support personalization of instruction to meet the needs of different students."

Other key findings of the report include:

• Very few districts, only 12 percent, reported that they didn't have mobile devices in any of their schools. That's down from 21 percent in the previous year;
• Districts reporting current adoptions were more likely to say that they were somewhat or very likely to adopt mobile tech beyond a few schools, at 72.4 percent, than schools with no current deployments, at 66.7 percent;
• The most common mobile device deployments reported by survey participants were carts shared among classrooms at a rate of approximately 42 percent. Twenty-three percent said some or all classrooms had mobile devices for students to share, nearly 20 percent said classrooms had 1:1 deployments and 15.7 percent of respondents said some classes had a full set of mobile devices and others had none;
• Twenty percent of districts surveyed said they had a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy currently in development and 8.7 percent said they had no BYOD policy;
• Slightly more than a quarter, 28.9 percent, of survey participants said their policy encourages BYOD and 18.4 percent said their policy is to not permit students to bring their own devices;
• Eleven percent of respondents said that BYOD policies were determined at the school level and 12.7 percent said they were determined at the classroom level;
• About 71 percent of those surveyed said their district had a "High level of interest" in purchasing Chromebooks or tablets; and
• Digital textbooks were most often cited as an app beneficial to students, at a rate of 68.9 percent. Creation tools, at 54.5 percent followed, and collaboration tools, such as Google Drive, were a close third place, at 52.1 percent. Productivity tools, such as those for storing files, taking notes and scheduling, came in fourth at 43.1 percent.

The report was created using the responses from 332 educators to an online survey.

To see an infographic of the findings of the survey, or to read the full report, visit go.amplify.com.