SURVEY SAYS: What don’t they do? In the past weeks Amplify has announced 30 new games, a MOOC, and most recently a National Survey on Mobile Technology. Sponsored by Amplify and released by Interactive Education Systems Design (IESD), the survey compiled responses from 558 educators examining questions on mobile technology adoption, devices, and everyone’s new favorite BYOD policies.
Some of the more interesting findings include: 51% of educators report they share class carts of mobile devices, versus 12.1% who have 1:1 access. As one may expect, iPads topped the list as the most common device, followed by Google Chromebooks, and the iPod Touch. The study also dug into the hurdles associated with adoption, with cost being the most prohibitive, followed by lack of infrastructure. Also mentioned was the difficulty of device management and the lack of teacher PD and support for mobile device integration.
It's worth comparing these findings to those in SIIA’s Visions K-20 survey, which also attempted to gauge educators' attitudes toward technology adoption.
Amplify's biggest takeaways from the report was that 88% of districts want to implement 1:1 programs, but funding remains the biggest barrier. Does this hint at a price drop from Amplify's $300 price tag for its tablets? One can only hope.
