“Trends in Digital Learning: Empowering Innovative Classroom Models for Learning”

Trends in Digital Learning: Empowering Innovative Classroom Models for Learning focuses on how innovative classroom models empower more engaging and purposeful learning environments for students and teachers. The report examines both the desired student achievements and the strategic use of digital tools, content and resources to understand, from the perspective of the students, teachers and administrators on the front lines, the opportunities and challenges associated with empowering new innovative classroom models.
Since 2007, Project Tomorrow has collaborated with Blackboard Inc. to create a series of annual reports that focus on the year-to-year trends in the use of digital learning tools to change the classroom learning paradigm through an in-depth analysis of the latest Speak Up national findings. In this latest update report, we examine the trends from our analysis of the Speak Up data collected in fall 2014. More than 521,000 K-12 students, parents, educators, and community members participated in Speak Up 2014, and the findings of how teachers and administrators are empowering innovation with digital tools, content and resources is the focus for this year’s trends report.

Key Findings from this year’s report include:

• More than 9 out of 10 administrators say that the effective use of technology within instruction is important for achieving their school or district’s core mission of education and preparation of students.
• Over three-quarters of parents (78%) say that the best way for their child to develop the college, career and citizen ready skills they will need for future success is to use technology on a regular basis within his or her daily classes at school.
• Two-thirds of middle school students (64%) agree that effective technology use increases their interest in what they are learning at school.
• Three-quarters of principals attribute increased student engagement in learning to the effective use of digital content in their blended learning classrooms
• 52% of teachers in blended classrooms say that their students are developing collaboration skills as a result of using technology within learning; 61% of their students agree!
• Almost three-quarters of technology leaders (73%) say that their school or district is now offering online courses for their students. Top subjects offered: Math, Social Studies/History, English Language Arts, Science and World Languages.