This audio is automatically generated. Please feel free to give us your feedback.
Dive summary:
- School districts have on average operated 2,739 different educational technology tools in the 2023-24 school year, an 8% increase from an average of 2,518 tools the previous school year, according to a recent report from Instructure’s LearnPlatform, an education technology platform that helps districts research and select digital learning products.
- According to the LearnPlatform report, the average number of unique educational technology tools used by students and teachers has seen a slight increase. In 2023-24, students accessed 45 different tools compared to 42 in 2022-23, while teachers used an average of 49 tools in 2023-24 compared to 42 the previous year.
- Of the 40 most commonly used educational technology tools by districts in 2023-24, 60% focused on individual learners through activities including studying, creating, researching and playing.
Dive Overview:
Although questions remain about how the pandemic period will be financed Emergency aid for primary and secondary schools funds will impact future investments in edtech, LearnPlatform’s findings show that overall edtech usage continues to skyrocket since 2020.
According to LearnPlatform, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts were using an average of 841 unique educational technology tools during the 2018-19 school year. That number more than doubled the following year to 2,195 and has steadily increased over the next four years.
Schools and Districts have until September 30 to allocate the remaining $189.5 billion from ESSER funds, some of which was used by schools to buy educational technologies. In addition to this, Global funding for educational technology companies hit a low in the first quarter of 2024 not seen since 2014, according to an April analysis by global market data platform HolonIQ.
There are signs that AI could continue to drive investment in education technology, as noted by LearnPlatform, which found that the use of AI-related technologies is on the rise in schools. If schools continue to embrace AI like other sectors, education technology “may not be far away” from seeing an influx of investment, according to a February analysis by an education technology investor Reaching the capital.
As more schools rely on large-scale digital landscapes, districts are increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats — especially ransomware. The integration of AI into educational technology tools further complicates the protection of student data privacy.
Given concerns about schools’ ability to secure their sensitive data, the nonprofit Future of Privacy Forum has created a AI Checklist for Districts to ensure student data privacy is protected. The process is quite similar to what districts should do when reviewing general education technology tools, the FPF said in its guidance released in April.
LearnPlatform also suggests that K-12 leaders create clear policies for AI use that include ethical guidance around bias, privacy, and transparency.
The results of LearnPlatform’s 2023-24 Education Technology Report are based on an analysis of data from 436 school districts, which included nearly 493,000 educators and 3.58 million students.
