The Technology Teacher Leaders from all 14 Elementary and Middle Schools did an amazing job of soliciting teacher and staff input on the instructional technology tools which are found to be most valuable to teaching and learning. For our Spring 2018 Technology survey we had over 70% participation district-wide with four sites at over 80% participation. We truly value the input of everyone who took the time to respond to our survey and want to publish the results of what we learned.
Our survey focused both on technology tools that have the greatest impact on teaching and learning and the types of professional development that have been most valuable in support of technology integration.
Use of Chromebooks: District-wide, the ratio of teacher to a set of Chromebooks in 3rd-8th grade is either 2:1 with a class set of Chromebooks shared among 2 teachers or 1:1 with a classroom having its own class set. In the survey we asked: “How has this impacted instruction?”
Appropriate Level of Technology Use: School staff opinions varied about how much technology is appropriate for each grade level. In the survey we asked:
Most Useful Instructional Tech Tools: For TK-2nd grade teachers, the tools that most impact teaching and learning are: Flocabulary, Go Noodle, Mystery Science, Raz Kids and Zearn.
For 3rd-5th grade teachers, the tools that most impact teaching and learning are: Flocabulary, Tales2Go, Typing Club, and Zearn. Other frequently mentioned ones were Desmos, Front Row, IXL, Newsela, Raz Kids and ST Math.
This group of teachers’ reflections on each of these tools highlights how effective technology integration requires very thoughtful reflection on one’s pedagogy:
There was some overlap with middle school teachers whose top four tools were: Desmos, Flocabulary, Newsela, and ST Math. Other 6th-8th grade notables were IXL, Pear Deck and Tales2Go.
In addition to the Flocabulary reflections above, some thoughts on the additional tools supported by middle school teachers are:
We so appreciate the time everyone took to complete the survey and and principals and Technology Teacher Leaders for administering and ensuring that such a high percentage of staff voices were heard. Funding is tight for next year and knowing what each site’s priorities are is extremely helpful as we evaluate which technology tools we are able to support through professional development and ongoing funding.
