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Digital Disconnect



Aloha all,
I recently attended a webinar called "Digital Content" and sponsored by Project Tomorrow. Project Tomorrow organizes the Speak Up survey given every year to students, parents, teachers and administrators across the nation to examine students growing desire for online learning and how schools are meeting that need. What I found interesting were the disconnects between what students want and what they're really getting. It seems like the adults know that students are very technologically savvy and even prefer technology as a means to communicate and socialize, but they don't realize how much students want to be able to apply that to their learning. Students report "powering down" to go to school. School administrators also reported that their teachers were not trained to integrate digital content, but the teachers reported that they felt comfortable using it. Teacher did report that they needed support in identifying digital content that would be most effective to use as there is an overload of online information and resources that they don't have the time to research and sort through (data supports our A`o Kumu format/content)


I think we all know this and we don't necessary need these types of data reports to tell us that there is disconnect, however I do feel that this is valuable as it really drives home to teachers, parents, and administrators the need to provide students with online and technology integrated learning options which goes back to what makes our cow purple. Maybe we should encourage our collobarating schools to take the next survey? Aggregated results will be reported back to them so they can see their school's specific responses. We could also use data points in our marketing messages and consider implications of data when building our house and especially in designing the various room for different groups. What do students want? What are they looking for? What are parents looking for? What do teachers need?









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