Teachers are holding on to print longer than media specialists or technology coordinators, but digital resources are making inroads. Only 21% of teachers, for example, give high-use ratings to blogs as supplemental materials. Wikis come in at only 22%. Those numbers jump to 44% and 41%, respectively, for media specialists. Tech coordinators come in at 36% for blogs and 42% for wikis.

Ed Tech from the Trenches: Second Annual Survey of Shifting Media and Materials Use in K-12 Education is tracking these figures. The new report explores:

• Digital resources in relation to print.
• Core curriculum in relation to supplemental and reference materials.
• Digital equivalents of print products in relation to Web 2.0 solutions.
• All of the above in relation to effective learning of 21st century skills.

Other findings include:

• High use of print textbooks is growing, as is high use of computer courseware and digital textbooks; the year-to-year increase is 4.75 times greater for courseware and 2.75 times greater for digital textbooks than for print textbooks.
• Fee-based, online resources such as streaming video and Web resource subscriptions are among the most popular supplemental resources.
• Emerging social media such as podcasts, wikis and blogs receive high ratings (for use with students) from about one-third of survey participants. More than half of the respondents check them as effective for 21st learning and thinking skills.
• Teachers as a group are later adopters of digital instructional resources than are the survey's tech coordinators, media specialists, and buyers.
• The younger generation of teachers (1-5 yrs.) is more oriented to online use even while a majority of them anticipate high use of textbooks.
• Instructional resources with the highest scores for learning key 21st century skills are: project-based activities, computer applications, computer courseware and simulations and games.
• Half to two-thirds of respondents give 21st century effectiveness ratings to the newer digital resources; considerably less than half believe traditional print resources fit the bill.
• The 21st century skills that are least well addressed by instructional resources today are leadership, health & wellness, economic & entrepreneurial literacy and ethics & social responsibility.
• The number of respondents who spend >25 hours per week online at school grew by more than 60% from 2006 to 2007; the number online >25 hours per week at home grew by 50%.
• From 2006 to 2007, use of broadband at school surged to about 9 in 10 educators and use of wireless more than doubled from 23-58%.

A sampler contains additional findings. The full report, authored by industry expert Sari Follansbee, Ed.D., and published by Marketing Projects, Inc., is sold for $599.

Source: Marketing Products Press Release, 2nd Annual 'Media and Materials Use' Survey Identifies Shifts in Mix of K-12 Instructional Resources