Equity, Cybersecurity Top List of State Education Technology Priorities
As college students return to a different school-year impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, a brand new report sheds mild on how state schooling companies and policy-makers are adapting to an more and more digital, post-pandemic world.
The 2022 State EdTech Trends Report, launched by the State Educational Technology Directors Association in collaboration with Whiteboard Advisors, attracts on the outcomes of SETDA’s flagship annual State EdTech Trends Survey of edtech administrators, state superintendents, chiefs of workers, and different senior state officers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Activity (DoDEA), and the Northern Mariana Islands.
The report dietary supplements the survey findings with interviews of leaders in a quantity of states to highlight their efforts to help digital studying. “Our job at the state is to advocate for what districts need and to promote our mentality that we are all in this together to help our students achieve,” acknowledged Rob Dietrich, Senior Director of Teaching and Learning on the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
“This report is so important because it represents the first attempt to document the shifts taking place in state education agencies as they adapt to a digital world,” stated Jhone Ebert, Superintendent of Public Instruction on the Nevada Department of Education and writer of the report’s preface. “In doing so, it spotlights great work taking place in states across the country while also identifying opportunities for further discussion, collaboration, and improvement.”
Among the important thing findings within the report and survey:
- Seventy p.c of respondents reported that the State Education Agency or at the least one district within the state was the sufferer of a cyber assault. However, 57% of respondents report that their states present little or no funding for varsity cybersecurity efforts.
- Survey respondents emphasised the necessity for better deal with the efficient use of expertise. More than half report that colleges have “a lot of edtech programs or products, but we don’t always use them effectively,” whereas solely 8 states report amassing information on edtech use and efficacy.
- States range enormously in how they’re organized to help edtech, with solely 55% of states reporting that they’ve a devoted workplace for instructional expertise. Although billions of {dollars} are spent yearly on edtech – an funding that elevated considerably in the course of the pandemic – many states nonetheless lack a devoted edtech workplace. The names of these workplaces, their roles and capabilities, and positions inside state schooling company organizational buildings range enormously.
- States can extra deliberately join instructional priorities and technological priorities – and help the reference to funding. Only 48% of respondents agree that their State Educational Agency (SEA) have express conversations concerning the position of expertise in supporting state priorities, whereas solely 41% say that the folks engaged on edtech on the state degree are frequently included in broader planning and strategic conversations round expertise.
- Many states report a disparity between edtech priorities and their actions. For occasion, though cybersecurity and privateness have been excessive technological priorities for states, solely 6% of respondents stated their state supplies ample funding for cybersecurity, 37% stated the state supplies cybersecurity instruments to Local Education Agencies, and 57% stated their state supplies little or no or a small quantity of funding for cybersecurity.
“This baseline data provides a look into how states are internally organized, and it will be a catalyst guiding SETDA’s work as we continue to support state edtech leaders in creating the organizational structures and technological infrastructure to help schools create powerful and engaging learning opportunities for students and educators,” stated Julia Fallon, Executive Director of SETDA. “Our hope is that it can serve as a guide to other institutions as well, and all those working to leverage the power of technology to rethink and transform their education systems.”
About SETDA
The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) is the principal affiliation representing U.S. state and territorial instructional expertise and digital studying leaders. Through a broad array of applications and advocacy, SETDA builds member capability and engages companions to empower the schooling group in leveraging expertise for studying, instructing, and college operations.
For extra info, please go to our web site https://www.setda.org or Twitter @setda
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