This year’s Project Tomorrow Speak-Up results demonstrate the headway made in transforming schools to personalized, powered up, hyper-connected ecosystems. Below are the key report findings from 2012 and 2014. Compare and contrast the results for yourselves.
* With smartphone usage dramatically on the rise—65% of students in grades 6-8 and 80% of students in grades 9-12 are smartphone users—a main concern among today’s digital learners is how to leverage the unique features of different devices, from laptops to smartphones to tablets to digital readers, and use them for certain academic tasks.
* While only 21% of teachers in middle and high schools are assigning Internet homework on a weekly basis, 69% of high school seniors, 61% of high school freshman, and 47% of 6th graders are online at least weekly to find resources to support their homework.
* In just one year, the number of middle school students with a personally acquired digital reader more than doubled, from 17% in 2011 to 39% in 2012.
* In the fall of 2011, 26% of students in grades 6-8 said that they had a personal tablet computer. In one year’s time, the percentage of middle school students with tablets jumped to 52%, doubling the 2011 percentage.
* Despite this increase of mobile devices in the hands of students, schools are still reluctant to allow them in the classroom. Among high school students with smartphones, only half say they can use their device at school and only 9% of students say they can use their personal tablet at school. With 73% of high school seniors reporting that they have a laptop, only 18% of the class of 2013 said they are allowed to use their personal laptop at school.
