Report: Students Used 74 Different Ed Tech Tools in Fall 2021 Semester, Educators Used 86

LearnPlatform today released a mid-year ed tech usage report showing that K–12 students in U.S. school districts used 74 different digital learning tools during the first half of the current school year, and educators used 86.

The company’s annual “EdTech Top 40” report ranks the most-accessed digital education products, tools, and resources; the mid-year report released today includes a new analysis of ed tech usage by more than 2 million K–12 students and 225,000 teachers, between Aug. 1 and Dec. 31, 2021, LearnPlatform said.

School districts accessed an average of 1,403 ed tech products per month, about the same total reported during the 2020-21 school year, the report noted.

LearnPlatform CEO Karl Rectanus noted that having to learn how to use scores of different technology tools in the course of one school semester might seem overwhelming to the average student or teacher.

“It leads to questions about whether students and teachers benefit from this variety and whether they can easily access and be proficient on this number of tools,” he said. “While there may be no ‘right number of tools,’ everyone should want to know whether the tools they are investing in are actually leading to the desired outcomes.”

The Top Ed Tech Solutions: Highlights

Holding the top five spots on the most-often-used list are Google products, the same as last year’s report: Google Docs, Google Slides, YouTube, Google Drive, and Google Forms. Google Classroom (No. 8) and Google Sites (No. 9) fell slightly in their rankings.

Also in the Top 10 were No. 6 Kahoot, up slightly from a year ago, and Clever, up five spots, LearnPlatform said.

As expected with the widespread return to in-person learning, Zoom and Google Meet dropped significantly to No. 20 and No. 21, respectively.

Tools categorized as solutions for Classroom Engagement & Instruction comprised the largest chunk of the top 40 list. Three Classroom Engagement & Instruction products with significant increases in usage were Blooket (up 21 places to No. 15); Edpuzzle (up 8 positions to No. 25); and Prodigy (up 12 positions at No. 19).

New to the Top 40 list are learning management system Schoology (No. 22); i-Ready (No. 32), Grammarly (No. 39) and McGraw-Hill Education (No. 40).

View the full report LearnPlatform.com/top40.

About the Author

Kristal Kuykendall is editor, 1105 Media Education Group. She can be reached at [email protected].


Featured

  • toolbox featuring a circuit-like AI symbol and containing a screwdriver, wrench, and hammer

    Microsoft Launches AI Tools for Educators

    Microsoft has introduced a variety of AI tools aimed at helping educators develop personalized learning experiences for their students, create content more efficiently, and increase student engagement.

  • magnifying glass highlighting a human profile silhouette, set over a collage of framed icons including landscapes, charts, and education symbols

    New AI Detector Identifies AI-Generated Multimedia Content

    Amazon Web Services and DeepBrain AI have launched AI Detector, an enterprise-grade solution designed to identify and manage AI-generated content across multiple media types. The collaboration targets organizations in government, finance, media, law, and education sectors that need to validate content authenticity at scale.

  • AI toolbox containing a wrench, document icon, gears, and a network symbol

    Common Sense Media Releases Free AI Toolkit, AI Readiness & Implementation Guides

    Common Sense Media has developed an AI Toolkit for School Districts, available to educators free of charge, that provides guidelines and resources for implementing AI in education.

  • computer science classroom featuring a desktop setup with code on the screen, a large wall display with charts, and a labeled book on a clean desk

    McGraw Hill Expands CTE Offerings

    Education company McGraw Hill has announced a host of new career and technical education courses, designed to help learners gain professional, technical, and academic skills for workforce success.