Key points:
- Students and parents often have a fragmented digital experience
- For more news on digital tools, visit ESN Digital learning hub
A “patchwork of applications” in schools often leads to the fatigue of applications, parents and frustrating educators who must use several applications each week, or even daily, depending on new searches of Cornerstone Communications, Ltd. And Edsby.
The new research report, Application overload: How a fragmented digital landscape fails the education from kindergarten to 12th yearhighlights the growing complexities of digital integration in education.
With a universe of available educational applications, the study underlines how the proliferation of poorly integrated digital tools in many districts has an impact on students, parents, teachers and district leaders.
A survey of more than 100 teachers, 125 parents and 50 heads of the district study and private schools revealed a striking contrast between administrative optimism and the realities faced by educators and families when they use several ad hoc ad hoc or even officially sanctioned applications.
While the district chiefs express confidence in the advantages of their selected digital tools suite, teachers report moderate dissatisfaction due to the increase in administrative tasks and parents describe a significant frustration of the management of several applications.
“In many kindergarten organizations to the 12th year, a patchwork of applications has become an integral part of our education system,” said Brooke Greenwald, president of Cornerstone Communications, Ltd. “The challenges with this approach depend on the type of user you are. We have learned from our long discussions and research that so that schools really associate with parents, which must change in the approaches of many organizations on K-12 applications. ”
Key results:
- Excessive use of applications: In districts that have not selected a single integrated system, most schools use between 10 and 15 educational applications with certain parents and parents components, creating a fragmented digital experience for their students and their families.
- Parental frustration: Forty-two percent of parents have evaluated their satisfaction when forced to use several applications at 5 out of 10 or less, citing difficulties to navigate in several platforms.
- Teacher burden: Educators spend an average of 2 to 4 hours per week using several educational applications, with additional administrative time harming educational tasks.
- Administrative optimism vs reality in class: Although the district chiefs largely believe that the current applications that they have officially selected or cultivated organically, are effective, teachers and parents are looking for more rationalized and integrated access.
The report recommends consolidating digital platforms, providing improved training to teachers and parents and the implementation of policy adjustments based on direct comments of stakeholders. The results emphasize the need for unified portals and to simplify user experiences to improve efficiency and commitment to the education of kindergarten in the 12th year.
“While digital tools offer incredible opportunities to improve students' results, navigation on 15 official applications, educators and overwhelming families are asked,” said Greenwald. “This report highlights the urgent need for rationalized integrated solutions that prioritize usability and efficiency.”
“The districts and private schools that have gathered their own Edtech suites from parts, especially during the pandemic, now carry out the disadvantages of the approach,” said John Myers, CEO of Edsby. “Organizations should assess unified and built -in platforms that have been explicitly designed to simplify teaching and learning kindergarten to 12th year, decompose silos and allow applications to improve user experiences.”
This press release Originally appeared online.
