Digital technologies have a positive impact on student achievement

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Eight-in-ten principals report that Digital Technologies are having a positive impact on student achievement, according to the latest research results from the Digital Technologies in Schools survey, prepared by Research New Zealand for the 20/20 Trust.

Eight-in-ten principals rating the impact of digital technologies raising student achievement as being moderate (half of all principals) or quite significant (three-in-ten).

Also, over 80% of principals agree or strongly agree that digital technologies, in their school:

  • enable access to quality learning resources and information online for teachers (91%)
  • offer new opportunities for professional development (89%)
  • enable access to quality learning resources and information online for students (89%).
  • make learning more relevant and engaging for students (82%).
  • enable more personalised teaching and learning (81%).

National and school report cards

This page is a national summary report card on selected key results from the 2016/17 survey. A copy of the complete report (which you can download here) is being sent to every New Zealand school in May. Participating schools also get a confidential report card tailored for each school, comparing its own results with those from schools of the same type.

Future focused learning

The framework used for the survey is based on the key elements of future-focused learning environments, including planning for digital technologies, digital tools for learning, teacher confidence in managing digital classrooms and integration of digital resources with the curriculum. The survey also obtains feedback from principals on learning impacts and barriers to use.

What do future-focused school do differently?

Future-focused schools:

  • have an ICT strategic plan that covers more than just the technology infrastructure – access to personal learning devices, change management and a strong underlying pedagogy are equally important for schools seeking to deploy digital technologies to enhance learning outcomes. Smart schools are even consulting their students on the most effective ways to use technologies in learning;
  • encourage their students to find ways to access the internet outside the school – preferably in their homes, but in communities where families struggle to afford an internet connection, at public hotspots in libraries and other community facilities;
  • support teachers to not only be confident users of digital technologies themselves but also have the skills to manage classes where all students have access to a personal digital device;
  • are already starting to see digital technologies having a measurable impact on student achievement;
  • engage with their communities using digital technologies.

Is your school future focused?

So, how future-focused is your school? How do you rate in terms of tackling these new challenges? Laurence Zwimpfer, Operations & Development Manager for 20/20 Trust, suggests you compare your school against key aspects in the report card below.

“This represents the average for all schools. If you score in the green zones, you are up with the leaders and understand well the benefits and opportunities for your students. If you are scoring in the orange zone, you clearly know where you want to be and are working hard to get there.”

“However, if you are scoring in the red zones, you might want to consult with other schools in your area about how to lift your game.”

Digital technologies in New Zealand Schools

2017 Report Card

(Downloadable from the 20/20 Schools Research page as pdf.) 

ICT Strategic Planning

74% of schools have an ICT plan

 

Most frequently, schools with ICT Strategic Plans reported their plan currently takes into account the following: Policies for safe digital learning environments (88 percent) Teacher professional development (85 percent) Network infrastructure (84 percent) Pedagogy (81 percent). More than three-quarters of principals with ICT Strategic Plans also reported taking into account equipment and software upgrades (78 percent). In contrast just over half of schools with an ICT Strategic Plan reported that the plan currently covers change management (55 percent). These results are similar to those reported in 2014.

 

Principals were asked what policies their school has for providing a safe digital learning environment. Principals reported that their school sets proactive priorities for safe online practices (79 percent), active management of site blocking filters (70 percent) and incident management (67 percent). Over half of schools rely on their internet service provider (ISP) to block inappropriate sites (57 percent).

 

Of respondents aware of the Future-focused report, 44 percent had implemented some or all of the recommendation, and 39 percent were planning to do so.

 

Funding and budgeting

Thirty percent of principals reported their school already accessed philanthropic support for learning with digital technologies, and a further 35 percent said their school was thinking about it.

 

More than one quarter of principals who were able to make an estimate (27 percent) reported spending more than 20 percent of the budget on hardware, leases, equipment and technical support. In contrast, similar proportions reported spending just one to five percent (27 percent) or six to ten percent (26 percent) of their budget on such expenditures.

 

Barriers to use of digital technology in schools

Barriers to the use of digital technologies: Principals were presented a list of potential barriers to the use of digital technologies and asked to rate each as to whether it was “not a barrier”, “somewhat of a barrier” or “a major barrier (Figure 28 and Table 30). Below is the list of the barriers frequently identified by principals. Where possible the 2014 survey results are also provided.  Cost of digital technology equipment (identified by 93 percent of principals as a major barrier or somewhat of a barrier for their school, which is unchanged from 95 percent of principals in 2014)  Cost of upgrades (85 percent, significantly less than 92 percent in 2014)  Affordability of personal digital devices for parents (84 percent)  Cost of online services (82 percent, identical to 82 percent in 2014)  Speed of technological change (75 percent, significantly less than 82 percent in 2014)  Extracting value for money (73 percent, unchanged from 77 percent in 2014)  Professional development of staff (72 percent, significantly less than 80 percent in 2014)  Parent support for use of digital technologies (70 percent). In contrast, approximately half of all principals identified the following issues as not being a barrier for their school to uptake and use new digital technologies:  Integration into the curriculum (identified as not being a barrier by 54 percent of principals, identical to 54 percent of principals in 2014)  Network infrastructure (54 percent, significantly more than 39 percent in 2014)  Managing student usage of such technologies (49 percent, not significantly different from 55 percent in 2014).

 

Student access to and use of digital devices

On average, schools have 1 computer for every 3 students

 

One-in-five (22 percent) reported that all students at their school have access to personal digital devices, while a further 40 percent said that more than 50 percent of students have access. However, 12 percent of principals reported that less than 25 percent of all students have such a device for the purposes of learning in school, while seven percent reported that no students have access to digital devices for the purposes of learning.

 

Forty-one percent of principals reported that none of the digital devices used by students at schools were personally owned, while 29 percent said less than 25 percent of digital devices being used by students at school were owned by them personally.

 

Principals were asked how often their students use personal digital devices during a typical school week. Twenty-eight percent of principals reported that their students use personal digital devices in all classes, while 27 percent said that students never use personal digital devices.

 

Eight-in-ten principals rating the impact of digital technologies raising student achievement as being moderate (half of all principals) or quite significant (three-in-ten).

More than eight-in-ten principals agreed or strongly agreed with the following statements about digital technologies and the role they play in their school:

  • Digital technologies enable access to quality learning resources and information online for teachers (91% agreed or strongly agree with this statement).
  • Digital technologies offer new opportunities for professional development (89%).
  • Digital technologies enable access to quality learning resources and information online for students (89%).
  • Digital technologies make learning more relevant and engaging for students (82%).
  • Digital technologies enable more personalised teaching and learning (81%).

 

Home access and family support

Eighty-three percent reported that 50 percent or more of the school’s students had access to the internet at home, which is unchanged from 2014. However, in 2016/17 significantly more respondents estimated that 75 to 99 percent of their students had access to the Internet at home (58 percent), compared with the 2014.

 

Engagement of families with their children’s learning: Fifty-one percent of principals reported there has been a fair (a rating of 4) to significant (a rating of 5) change in families engagement levels with children’s learning, as a result of the family home being digitally connected. One quarter of principals felt there had been a moderate change.

 

 

School communicates with the wider community/whānau by: Emails between teachers and parents (93 percent) Publishing information on the school’s website (91 percent) Newsletters by email (89 percent) Telephone contact, including voice messaging (80 percent).

 

Teachers’ use of digital technologies

No principals stated that teachers in their school were in the awareness stage of digital technology adoption, some of their teachers were either in the learning stage (five percent), or understanding the application of the process stage (11 percent). More importantly, most principals reported that the teachers in their schools were in one of the later three stages of adoption of digital technologies – familiarity and confidence (40 percent), adaption to other contexts (31 percent) or creative application to new contexts (13 percent).

 

 

one percent of principals reported that none of the teachers in their school have skills to manage use of personal digital devices for learning in schools; however 20 percent felt that all of their teachers currently have the skills.

 

Most frequent problems that teachers face when using digital technologies for learning were: Time for upskilling (rated as 4 or 5 by 56 percent of principals) Inequality of student access to technology at home (36 percent) Pedagogical change (35 percent). On the other hand, the issues that were most frequently cited as not being a problem for teachers were: Student engagement in learning (rated as 1 or 2 by 74 percent of principals) Student wellbeing (73 percent) , Leadership in use of technology (59 percent).

More information

The report card and full report are downloadable from the 20/20 Schools Research page as pdf. 

Supported by 2degrees, Ministry of Education, InternetNZ, Microsoft, netsafe and Research NZ.