A new survey released today by Pearson, and conducted on its behalf by Harris Poll, finds that while student ownership of mobile devices continues to increase, Wi-Fi connectivity at school lags behind home. Nearly all the students in grades 4-12 (96 percent) surveyed reported having Wi-Fi access at home. However, only 68 percent of those same students said they can connect to Wi-Fi at school.
According to the survey, smartphone ownership among students in grades 4-12 has risen since last year, and increases with grade level. For example, 8 in 10 of high school students own a smartphone. Even with that high level of personal smartphone ownership, high school students are nearly eight times as likely to prefer laptops, notebooks and Chromebooks for learning (38 percent to 5 percent).
The proportion of students learning in a 1:1 environment—where each student has access to a device—rose to 19 percent, up from 16 percent in 2014. The full report is available at pearsoned.com/mobile-survey-2015-grades-4-12.
