As the internet and social media become entrenched in classrooms, more schools teach students how to behave responsibly online and how to gauge the credibility of the web’s resources, says Pamela Roggeman, academic dean for University of Phoenix’s College of Education.
Still, a 2017 University of Phoenix survey of 1,000 teachers found 84 percent had not integrated social media into their classrooms. A large majority worried that connecting with students and parents could create conflict. And about one-third of the respondents reported their professional and personal lives had been monitored by parents.
As for devices, laptops and computers were used in class by 86 percent of the teachers, interactive whiteboards and tablets by over 60 percent, and handheld technology by 38 percent.
Google for Education, social media, assessment applications, cloud storage access, e-books, and digital games and simulations topped the list of technology platforms utilized in their schools.
However, over one-third said their school or district did not have funding to provide the technology they wanted. Nearly two-thirds of the teachers allowed students to use the internet to do research and about the same proportion reported using technology every day. One quarter of teachers felt intimidated by their students’ knowledge of technology.
Only 25 percent of respondents felt they received significant training to integrate technology into the classroom, 69 percent felt PD was “adequate” and 5 percent received no training.
