in the cloud

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Smartphones a Standard for Majority of Students by High School, Survey Finds

Girls are more likely than boys to be users of mobile devices, by a margin of 75 percent to 69 percent, the survey found. They were also more likely to use tablets, by a margin of 39 percent to 30 percent, than boys, and e-readers, by a margin of 16 percent to 7 percent.

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The infographic highlights findings from the mobile learning report, Living & Learning with Mobile Devices, released today from Grunwald & Associates and the Learning First Alliance. According to the report more than 50 percent of parents believe that schools should make more use of mobile devices in education.

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I’m really surprised by the data collected in this survey (2,392 parents) which isn’t unfortunately broken down into age categories. Two items of note:

83% said their school does not require use of personal electronic devices and 72% said it was not allowed at all.
Parents are concerned about theft of personal devices (81%), but 45% still plan to buy or have a personal mobile device purchased for their student. 32% of parents surveyed think schools should require this.

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Want to get your parents more involved in your students’ lives at school? The key idea here is using many ways to communicate with parents; ask directly, use social media, make take-home projects…

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As more classrooms fill up with technology, so increases the need for our students to truly understand the concept of Digital Footprint. There are quite a few great websites geared toward kids. Here are a few to explore with your students:

Kidsmart: Digital Footprints

Digital footprint: Cybersmart

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There’s a difference between using technology and integrating technology in your classroom, and this list from Teachbytes can help you visualize the difference.

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Interactive Infographic: Why Are Students Not Finishing School and at What Cost?

When students don’t continue or complete high school or college, factors like social, family, and proficiency issues can be the cause. Find out why students might be struggling academically and the cost of not completing 16 years of education.

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Did You Know?

90% of the worlds languages are used by less than 100,000 people

26.8% of the information on the internet is in English

There are 6912 languages spoken in the world

Mandarin Chinese has the most native speakers

English has the largest number of non-native speakers

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With the growing number of MOOCs, online classes, and blended learning, does the current pricing of highered make sense anymore?

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This Is How Students Use School Websites

The vast majority of students (88%) say it’s easier to Google information about schools rather than visiting the school’s actual website. Sad, no?

It’s true, I do this myself… It’s especially easier to google the content I want on site:schoolname.edu (or any site, including my tumblr!).

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A few interesting don’t anymores:

Print photographs (#7): I don’t know about you, but I rarely print anything these days. Based on the number of devices and photos I take, I print less than 1% a year.
Handwritten letters (#11): I have friends that scrapbook, so I make cards and send them to family and friends. I still find the USPS novel, and love getting holiday cards (especially from my mom). I used to be the crazy-card-lady at work, something I need to do again!
Watch TV shows when they’re on (#35): Thanks to Twitter, I do this more than I did in the past, especially with larger events like the SuperBowl, State of the Union, and I’m looking forward to this Sunday’s Academy Awards.

Some of these are weak, because while you may not access the physical thing anymore you are still accessing the service physically through a device that connects to the internet (Mixtapes (#14), Address book (#16), Dictionary (#25), Photo album (#34), etc).

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What Students and Parents Think About Mobile Technology

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4 Edtech Trends Coming To Your Classroom

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I’m not sure this infographic is truly informative, but it’s interesting that it starts off by promoting SMS/Text marketing to connect students with resources. Online Colleges suggests using texting to notify, remind, and inform, but is that really useful in the classroom related to learning?

While students may own a smartphone, until schools provide smartphones and data plans to faculty or services you’re already using (like D2L/Moodle/etc) that allow you to text your students, I’m not sure how this works and truly transforms the classroom. Overall the suggestions are weak.

However - that brings up some questions from me, as our high school uses SMS/Text opt-in services for critical notifications (school closings) only. Are you using any systems/resources that allow you to text your students? Does your school policy allow it? Do you use it for “marketing” school events? Why not just use Twitter?

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Being able to read is one of the most important skills a person can have, and a child’s reading level in third grade gives a good indication of their future success. Why third grade? It’s a pivotal point in a child’s education where they go from learning to read to reading to learn.

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Will school printers be a thing of the past?

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We talk about how the U.S. uses education technology. But what about the other international programs out there? For example, China? How do schools in the two different countries leverage education technology? Who uses it for research more? Which country spends the most amount of time using edtech?