Ever imagine being a fly on the wall inside K-12 schools? To learn first-hand how they’re using tech to teach? How they’re spending budget dollars and who decides? What they think about open educational resources (OER) vs. commercial materials? It would take a lot of walls and too many flies to get the answers to questions like these. The good news is that there’s a better option—no insects required!
MDR has compiled four State of the K-12 Market reports:
- School Trends: Principal’s Perspectives on Instructional Initiatives and Purchasing Decisions
- Educational Materials Trends
- Classroom Trends: Teachers as Buyers of Instructional Materials and Users of Technology
- Educational Technology Trends
We recently introduced these four reports at SXSW 2018, and found that the content of these reports, and some additional reports to be released later this year, aligns well with what the attendees were interested in learning about. For instance:
- Those looking for definitions of what constitutes All Instructional Materials (AIM) expenditures, or whether we track teacher spending at the elementary school level versus the high school level, will find those answers in TITLE.
- There was much curiosity about source materials, the relative use of OER’s, both teacher created and publisher created materials, and whether years of teaching experience determine which one is preferred. There’s a deep dive on that subject in the Educational Materials Trends report.
- An attendee who wanted to understand how classroom structure supports learning will be able to get those answers from the School Facilities & Pedagogy report, slated for the second half of 2018.
So, save yourself some time by not trying to spy on every school in the country – but by reading these reports instead. Checkout all the reports here.
