According to survey results in Teachers Talk Technology, MDR’s second publication in the State of the K-12 Market 2018 series, seventy-seven percent of the nearly 4,400 teachers queried indicated their school provides wireless Internet access for both faculty and students in most places on campus.
In regards to the speed of that wireless internet access, only 5% believed that the Internet access provided by their school was fast, although 75% reported that their Internet was good enough or better than average. About one-in-five indicated that their school’s Internet speed was slow.
How can schools improve the speed of their internet without the infrastructure or budget to make the necessary changes? Luckily, a number of non-profits and associations exist that work to do just that – improve the quality and availability of school internet access.
If you provide an education service or product, and want to speak intelligently about accessibility issues with potential and existing customers, suggesting the following resources to school leaders may help:
- Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) — CoSN helps education technology leaders address key challenges as they transition to digitally enabled learning environments. Support, resources, and tools are provided for school district administrators, educators, and educational organizations to leverage the power of technology to improve student learning.
- Digital Promise — This organization works to accelerate innovation in education to improve opportunities to learn and close the digital learning gap. They achieve this through a variety of projects including one help educators integrate computational thinking into their curriculum, to amplify and enrich their lessons.
- Education SuperHighway — Their mission is to upgrade the Internet access in every public-school classroom in America so that every student has the opportunity to take advantage of the promise of digital learning.
- International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) — A community of global educators who believe in the power of technology to transform teaching and learning, accelerate innovation, and solve tough problems in education. Their Essential Conditions program include the 14 critical elements necessary to effectively leverage technology for learning. They offer educators and school leaders a research-backed framework to guide implementation of the ISTE Standards, tech planning and system-wide change.
- National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities — Their website is the largest source of school facilities information in the world. Its purpose is to offer timely and comprehensive information for all stakeholders involved in designing, building, and maintaining safe, healthy, high-performing schools.
- The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) — This organization serves, supports, and represents merging interests and needs with respect to the use of technology for teaching, learning, and school operations
Interested in learning more internet speed and access in schools nationwide? Or, about how teachers experience and use technology in the classroom? Teachers Talk Technology, the second report in our 2018 series, has all of the latest trends from the responses of nearly 4,400 teachers. Get your copy today.
Interested in discussing the topic in this article or the data in our reports? You can contact us at mdrinfo@dnb.com or leave a comment below!
