Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

1.11.10 | More than 75 percent of K-12 educators say they use digital media, according to findings from a new survey. That number is up from 69 percent in 2008.

The report, “Digitally Inclined” (PDF), was conducted by Grunwald Associates under a grant from PBS.

“The significant increases in the usage, frequency and access to digital media in the classroom over the past several years, along with the research showing that integrating multimedia and technology into instruction can boost student achievement, is driving our strategy to produce the most effective media for learning,” said Rob Lippincott, senior vice president of education for PBS. “We’re especially pleased that PBS emerged as the number one source of educational TV and online content among pre-K teachers in the survey.”

Grunwald has been examining educators’ use of media and technology for PBS since 2002. This was the first year pre-K educators were included in the survey.

Key findings include:

• Of K-12 teachers who use digital media in the classroom, 80 percent are frequent or regular users. Classroom use of digital media is less common among preK-educators, with only 33 percent reporting use. However, pre-K educators who use digital media use it as frequently as K-12 teachers do.
• Pre-K and K-12 teachers value many different types of digital media, with games and activities for students to use in school (65 percent) topping the list. Teachers increasingly value student-produced multimedia, student-created Web sites, blogs, and social media communities as well.
• K-12 teachers increasingly access video online. While teachers narrowly prefer using purchased or recorded DVDs, 72 percent reported they stream or download content from the Internet, up from 65 percent in 2008.
• One-quarter of K-12 educators say they belong to an online community specifically for teachers, and those who use social networking sites are comfortable with a variety of online activities. Results are similar for pre-K educators.

PBS is developing a Digital Learning Library for teachers that will include video, audio, images and interactive simulations designed for classroom use. These will be available through PBS member stations nationwide later this year. Its web portal for teachers is available at pbs.org/teachers.