Some college store professionals believe digital
content will only become a dominant format when students begin using it in
grade school. That day has gotten much closer.
Digital Content Goes to School: Trends in K-12 Classroom e-Learning found that 80% of school and district leaders who responded to the survey said
they are using digital content in some way. Of more than 2,000 respondents, 73%
had a digital-device strategy and 64% are using digital content with that
strategy.
The survey, released by the Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development and content distributor OverDrive Inc., also
reported that most educators use digital content for English and language arts
(74%), science (62%), math (61%), and social studies (56%), according to a
report in eSchool News. Respondents added that use of digital content will continue to
grow as long as teachers receive professional development.
Equity concerns and lack of Internet access top the
list of issues educators have with going digital. Teachers also listed not
being comfortable with digital learning, not enough devices in the classroom, lack
of funding, and content that doesn’t work on every device as other concerns.
“We
believe the paradigm of instruction needs to change,” Kahle Charles, executive
director of curriculum, St. Vrain Valley School, Longmont, CO, said in response
to the survey. “Devices bring more knowledge to students’ fingertips than the
teacher can give, so the traditional lecture model is no longer applicable. We
want content that will engage students and the ability to introduce flipped
classrooms with content that students can access at any time, at any place.”
