The State of Technology in Education 2019/20
Our annual State of Technology in Education Report is always packed full of candid insights, key trends, and edtech predictions within the education sector, shining a light on what's most important. 2019’s edition is no different.
Schools' Strategic Goals
School leaders are committed to using educational technology to increase engagement and collaboration while focusing on creative learning experiences and new learning techniques. However, there is less confidence in schools' strategic visions, particularly among teachers and IT managers, despite ever more respondents taking an active role in strategy.
Significant increase in focus on pupil needs and curriculum
SMT members identify the biggest influences on their strategies as pupils’ needs (81.2%—up by over 20% since 2018/19) and the curriculum, which has risen over 40 percentage points from 20.9% to 61.9%.
What overall changes do you think will impact student education this year and beyond?
Schools are stuck trying to replace traditional methods with technology - this is due to old fashioned curriculum design
Creative learning experiences and new learning techniques are top priorities, after school results
Providing more creative learning experiences' and 'New pedagogical techniques/learning strategies' are the second (34.2%) and third (32.4%) highest priorities for the year ahead - their highest ranking yet. 'Providing more creative learning experiences' in particular has almost doubled since 2017/18 (17.2%). This aligns with Ofsted’s announcement that it will be prioritising broader teaching over exam results.
Increased strategic focus on edtech
'Delivering educational benefits through edtech' is an ever-growing priority for all, up to 22.1% from 9.1% in 2017/18.
% who identify delivering educational benefits through technology as a priority
SMT members are very focused on using technology to boost collaborative learning and engagement. Almost 40% say they want to use technology to enhance collaborative learning in school (nearly twice as many since 2017/18). Nearly half of SMT members (49.7%) say they want to use technology to boost engagement (up around 35% since 2017/18).
In terms of technology, what are the priorities in your strategy?
The cloud-based development of shared learning resources allows teachers to be more collaborative and creative in meeting the needs of a wide range of students.
Online meetings free up so much time. The ability to work collaboratively on line as a MAT is really powerful.
However, there is less confidence in schools’ strategic visions—and more criticism...
Only 51.7% of respondents believe their school has a clear strategic vision
Just over half of respondents (51.7%) believe their school has a clear strategic vision for the year ahead, down 17% from last year. 1 in 10 (11.2%) don’t actually know what their school’s key priorities are for the year ahead.
Two years ago, 100% of SMT agreed their school had clear strategic vision for the year ahead—now just over 70%. IT managers are the only group who have remained fairly consistent (at between 60 and 70%).
Of those schools that identify a lack of strategy, a failure in leadership is blamed by 40.9%—with teachers and IT being most critical of school leaders.
...Despite more respondents taking an active role in strategy
Interestingly, clarity of purpose is decreasing as more respondents are taking an active role in strategy than ever before (from 9.8% in 2017/18 to nearly 19% in 2019/20).
I played a lead role in formulating the school strategy
We've seen a dramatic increase in respondents taking a key role in their school's strategy, particularly business managers and headteachers. Everyone, in fact, except for teachers; the group with the lowest influence, which has decreased to just 7.4%. Are schools losing touch with their most valuable assets?
The technological advances seem to come from the teachers up rather than being imposed on the staff by Senior Management.
Leadership has no one strategically responsible for technology and most are technophobes.
SLT would like to cut screen time - thinking of it as 'the enemy' - I believe it is lack of understanding of how it can be used effectively in lessons.
Technology is widely recognised as helping to improve education—and is therefore a vital component of schools’ strategies. But there remains disagreement over exactly where those strategies need to focus. Senior leaders have some way to go to win teachers and IT managers over.
Workload and Wellbeing
Workload is at a critical level for many educators and represents the biggest threat to retaining teachers. Schools are also doing more than ever to improve the situation, but there remains a perception gap between SMT, IT managers and teachers, with senior leaders not quite as concerned about the problem.
Teacher workload is reaching critical levels
8 out of 10 teachers believe workload is contributing to high levels of stress in schools.
81.2% of teachers believe workload is contributing to high levels of stress in schools, up 19.1% from last year. Senior leaders agree, but only 65.6% - revealing a disconnect between senior leadership and the classroom.
Teacher workload is contributing towards high levels of stress in my school
By department
I would hope advancements in educational technology would see a genuine reduction in duplication of tasks and easing of bureaucracy.
Schools beginning to do more
Teacher workload may be worse than ever, yet 38.2% of respondents also believe schools are doing more to address the problem to improve teacher wellbeing (compared to 19.5% in 2018/19).
But there's still a perception gap between SMT, IT managers and teachers
70.7% of teachers say workload is harming learning (compared to 58.1% of SMT members or 50.4% of IT managers).
What's causing the most frustration? Workload, long hours, pupil behaviour, lack of support from SLT.
And workload remains the most significant threat to teacher retention
More than 30% of survey respondents believe staff retention is a challenge, and fewer than 4% of educators believe their schools are addressing the issue.
Is staff retention a challenge in your school?
And workload remains the most significant threat to teacher retention
What’s more, over half of respondents (52%) agree workload or long hours are the biggest threat to retention.
Given that staffing teacher recruitment already takes the majority of a school budget, this scenario leads to high teacher/pupil ratios or even more budget required to spend on agency/temporary teachers.
Senior leaders acknowledge that workload is a major issue. However, the overwhelming majority of teachers and IT managers say it’s critical. There are some promising signs that schools are beginning to address the problem, but this is where the time-saving benefits of educational technology in particular will prove indispensable.
Staff Training
After recent years of focus, training has fallen in the list of school's strategic priorities. But it remains more critical than ever (especially for edtech). Why? Teachers want more spent on training, but can't create more time to manage their overflowing workloads.
Teacher training has fallen in the list of priorities
Teacher training has fallen in the list of respondents' priorities for the coming year, less than half of what it was last year (31.3% → 12.8%).
Conflict over priorities between SMT and teachers
86.1% of SMT members are onboard with their school's strategic training priorities. Only 58.3% of teachers are.
In particular, more SMT members than teachers (30.6% vs 21.6%) say their schools prioritise training on curriculum or government-led changes.
IT managers and SMT members think training is a higher priority than teachers do
Just 10.2% of teachers said training is a key priority, compared to 19.7% of IT managers and 21.7% of SMT members.
More training is required as some teachers are not using edtech at all.
Training is excellent for teaching staff, but as the school is run by teachers, they have no idea what training non-teachers require.
When it comes to funding, twice as many SMT members (61.3%) identify training as a priority compared to teachers (29.7%).
Is teacher/staff training identified as a funding priority in your 2019/20 school strategy?
However… Many respondents agree that not enough is being spent on training—especially teachers
Around a third of all teachers, IT managers and SMT members agree that insufficient funds are allocated to training. But of those who think funding is at the right level, the difference is stark: 49.4% of SMT members compared to 20.3% of teachers and 21% of IT managers. It seems this is one of the main areas where the SMT school strategy disconnect is strongest (jump to: Schools' Strategic Goals).
I think our school throws a lot of time and sometimes money, at training but very little of it is actually effective at developing the skills and understanding of the staff.
And edtech training is in high demand
What has happened in the last four years? In 2016/17, 55% of teachers said they got adequate edtech training and support. Now just 16.5% do.
Most respondents agree on this, especially teachers. Only 16.5% of teachers—down from 55% in 2016/17—believe they receive adequate edtech training and support. Just 6.5% say they receive full training and support.
It's a shame only a small minority of teachers are supported and encouraged to use technology to engage students in a love for learning. The school is too focussed on training students to pass.
The real reason teachers are conflicted about training?
Respondents cite 'Budgetary issues/other priorities' (58%) and 'No time to deliver' (25.2%) as the main reason more training is not provided at their schools.
This hints at why there is an apparent contradiction in teachers' response to training. Many respondents say it would be nice to have if they weren't already struggling to find the time to perform their core duties.
We're verging on too much training without time to implement changes effectively.
There's no time off allowed to attend training.
Most respondents are closely aligned, although IT managers at MATs have a different perspective. Just 20% cite 'Budgetary issues/other priorities' and 33.3% say 'No time to deliver'. 22.7% gave other reasons—with many criticising how training is planned and delivered.
Training is a thorny topic for teachers. Many appreciate it can help them do their jobs better; but they can't help seeing it as another drain on their time—especially if it's regarded as irrelevant or ineffectual. As we'll see in the following section, whether it's time or money, when teaching resources are scarce educators want schools to focus on what delivers the biggest impact.
Budgets
'Operations & maintenance' and 'additional learning support' have seen a dramatic increase in priority, followed by 'technology'. The latter is now the fourth most likely asset to command the majority of schools' budgets, but many agree they need to spend more. School leaders are most concerned about the impact of school budgets on education, and there is disagreement with teachers and IT managers over how training budgets are allocated.
School leaders are most concerned about the impact of budgets on education
Money is always a factor. As we've seen each year, most school leaders (53.6%) agree school budgets will make it difficult for their schools to realise their strategic objectives.
Budget constraints are a huge barrier to progress.
Two thirds of school leaders (66.6%) say budget played a key factor when devising their schools' strategies
Education budgets are having a bigger impact on school strategies. Two thirds of school leaders (66.6%) say budget played a key factor when devising their schools' strategies and 29.1% said it was a consideration. Last year the split was more even (42.7% vs 48.3%).
How big a role did budget play when devising your school strategy?
When it comes to education, 71.7% of SMT school leaders say budgets will have the biggest impact on students (albeit this number is slowly dropping).
What overall changes do you think will impact student education this year and beyond?
Teachers and IT managers don't agree with school leaders on training budgets
Just one in five teachers say enough is spent on training.
Do schools pay the bills for the skills? Opinions differ. SMT members are almost two and a half times more likely (49.4%) to say that the training budget is at the right level, compared to teachers (20.3%) and IT managers (21%). (Jump to: Staff training)
More investment is needed in providing technology in schools. Not just the purchasing of hardware—more training is required for the teachers. They need to be more confident in using technology, and move with the times at the same pace as technology does.
It's better for a school to be part of the progressive movement than to lag behind due to IT ignorance. However, I recognise that with ever decreasing school budgets, not all schools have the options to invest in better IT infrastructure, resources and edtech.
Big increase in spending on operations and maintenance, and additional learning support
Where will schools spend most of their budget in the next 12 months? Compared to last year, almost five times as many school leaders (10.7% in 2018/19 → 49.3% in 2019/20) agree operations and maintenance will be the spending top priority after salaries, followed by additional learning support (4.5% in 2018/19 → 30.2% in 2019/20).
Operations and maintenance budget allocation: 2018/19
Operations and maintenance budget allocation: 2019/20
Learning support budget allocation: 2018/19
Learning support budget allocation: 2019/20
Technology spend rises to fourth place in budgets
15.5% of school leaders say they'll spend most of their school's budget on edtech in the coming year (compared to 3.9% in 2018/19).
The number of senior leaders who say they will spend most of their school's budget on tech has more than tripled in the last year, from 3.9% in 2018/19 to 15.5% in 2019/20—putting tech as the fourth highest spending priority.
Over 40% of school leaders say technology will have a major impact on student education during this year and beyond
The number of school leaders that say edtech will impact education has doubled in the last year (17.6% in 2018/19 to 40.9% in 2019/20). This is its highest level in the last four years (35% in 2016/17, 30% in 2017/18). Are more school leaders once more recognising its potential?
But still not enough is spent on edtech
However, for the past four years, more respondents agree that too little budget is spent on technology—currently 46.3%, the highest percentage we've seen.
How do you feel about your school's allocation of budget to technology?
Percentage of IT managers concerned about school budget allocation for technology
Percentage of SMT members concerned about school budget allocation for technology
Percentage of teachers concerned about school budget allocation for technology
Back in 2016/17, teachers were the most concerned group. When asked if they thought too little budget was being allocated to technology, 45.5% agreed. SMT and IT were less negative in 2016/17 and more closely aligned (37.5% and 38% respectively).
It's IT managers, though, that have really ramped up their criticism, going from 38% in 2016/17 to 56.7% in 2019/20 complaining not enough is spent on technology.
When viewed alongside data on how much schools now value technology, it's clear there is a misalignment in the perception of the value of technology and what is being spent on it.
School budgets are always a contentious issue. Virtually everyone agrees there's never quite enough money, so it's not surprising there's fierce debate over what to actually spend it on. However, we'd expect to see the increased investment in educational technology translate into greater efficiency savings and improved learning outcomes in time for next year's budget.
Schools' use of Tech
There has been a dramatic shift in consensus regarding how vital technology has become to education. Educators (and especially IT managers) strongly believe it helps them to do their jobs better, engage students and improve behaviour. And schools could use tech in even more areas, provided it's relevant—something which nearly 100% of respondents insist upon.
Tech is overwhelmingly seen as an essential part of education
Nine in 10 educators say tech is integral to everyday life—and education.
Over 89% of educators believe that technology is now integral to everyday life, so it should be present in education—a significant increase from 2018/19 (52.3%).
I would be lost without it nowadays.
There is never enough.
Tech helps educators do their job better
82.7% of educators agree tech helps them do their job better. Unsurprisingly, this year also sees by far the highest number of educators who are seeking to use technology to engage and educate students.
89.6% believe using tech is a great way to engage students in the classroom (up from 31.8% in 2017/18):
Using technology in the classroom is a great way to engage students
41.6% of teachers believe that the use of technology in the classroom can improve behaviour.
59.7% of educators say they are constantly striving to innovate by using technology as a tool for education, the highest percentage in the last four years (50.1% in 2016/17).
It's expected that IT managers view tech favourably, but virtually all (92%) now agree it's a necessary part of life and should be reflected in lessons, up from 65% last year. Similarly, 96.7% say it's a great way to engage students.
Teachers always seem to shy away from using technology in the classroom. They only ever scratch the surface of what is possible and never fully realise the true potential of the technological resources they have.
Interactive and handheld tech on the rise
The use of interactive panels/whiteboards (88.1%) and tablets/iPads (76.3%) continues to increase, together with apps (54.3%)—all of which have seen see their highest use rates yet together with laptops (85%), cloud-based lesson delivery (20.5%) and screen mirroring (32.8%).
We've also started recording figures for mobile phones, which enter at 37.5% this year.
There's more scope for the use of technology in education…
Facilitating remote working (55.6%) and making content centrally available (62.4%) remain the biggest uses of online technology; a positive sign that also suggests there is scope to explore more applications of online technology, such as bringing experts and experiences into the classroom virtually.
…while ensuring that tech is appropriate for the learning situation
95.4% now believe edtech is best used where it can be appropriately adapted to the learning situation, compared to just 35.5% in 2018/19. This applies as increasing numbers are seeing tech as best for teaching either soft (60.9%) or hard skills (20.1%). The difference is quite dramatic, especially for soft skills:
When it comes to educational technology, it seems everyone wants more of everything. The vast majority of educators are convinced that edtech is improving their teaching and helping students to stay more focused, both in and out of the classroom. There has been a real shift in applying technology for specific goals—and plenty more potential on the horizon.
The Future of Tech in Education
Technology is regarded as a bigger factor than ever in influencing the future of education. This sentiment is mostly attributed to IT managers and SMT leaders, but more teachers than in previous surveys recognise its impact. Most respondents agree on the five key technologies that will grow most over the next three years, with cloud-based lesson planning and delivery tools topping the list.
Twice as many respondents see technology as a major factor impacting education
Technology is seen as the changing factor that will have the third-highest impact on student education in 2019/20 and beyond (after budgetary restrictions 71.7% and government policies 58.9%). 40.9% of respondents—over twice as many as last year (17.6%)—cite it as a key influence.
Broad agreement on top five technologies expected to grow the most
The top five technologies seen as having the biggest growth in the next one to three years are:
- Cloud-based lesson planning and delivery tools (35.8%)
- Online assessments (31.4%)
- Virtual reality and augmented reality (VR & AR) (25.3%)
- Robotics/coding (21.8%)
- Remote learning technology (21.6%)
There is a broad consensus between teachers, IT managers and SMT on the above; each group agrees on two technologies with each other group. The one technology all three groups agree on is cloud-based lesson planning and delivery tools.
Technologies to be used in the coming years
By departments
What does the future hold for edtech?
As VR technology becomes more realistic and available it will allow for virtual field trips to faraway places.
We will be able to teach across distances that we have only marginally done so far. This will open up EFL as well as EAP university study preparation.
Advances in edtech mean I will spend less time managing hardware, and more time working on delivery of services.
How will edtech help or hinder educators' careers?
Numerous respondents believe that edtech can make them more employable, enhance student engagement and reduce admin. Some fear the decline of traditional classroom teaching and the use of tech for the sake of it, while many say that it's irrelevant if schools don't invest enough in up-to-date solutions and edtech training.
Positives
Edtech makes it more likely to advance in my career, otherwise I will not be as employable or likely to gain promotion.
Less about advancing career, more about the quality of interaction. I can use technology to support students' online journeys and create more time for 1:1 with challenged pupils etc.
I would hope to see a genuine reduction in duplication of tasks and easing of bureaucracy.
As an IT technician not only would it allow me to enhance students' learning and their development, it will also allow me to reach my full potential in my career and future proof myself.
Negatives
The downside of technology for teachers is an expectation to be available 24 hours to the demands of students and that students will stop attending lessons if all resources are available online.
Educational technology must not be used for the sake of using it. It must enhance the delivery of the topic and aid in the learning of the pupils.
There won't be any benefits, unless there is funding for equipment and training.
None without training, and schools rarely offer expensive training to support staff!
We've seen attitudes to training, workload, budgets, and strategy evolve significantly over the last four years. Technology influences—and is influenced by—them all. There is broad consensus on what types of edtech will grow the most, while educators have a diverse appreciation for education technology's potential to propel their careers and inspire pupils—provided the other elements fall into place.
Enjoyed the report?
This year's State of Technology in Education paints a complicated picture of conflicting challenges faced by SMT, teachers and IT staff. One clear positive, though, is the growing and useful role that technology is playing in the classroom. Looking forward to next year's report, we hope to see edtech increasingly acting as an enabler to solving the problems this year's survey uncovered.
For more insights into this year's findings, explore Promethean's education blog, ResourcEd.
