Dive Brief:

• The Learning Counsel’s Digital Curriculum Strategy Survey found 86% of K-12 schools expect to spend more on digital curriculum this year, and EdTech: Focus on K-12 reports the fact that spending is shifting from individual teachers to districtwide purchases means the market is maturing.
• Still, schools should be focusing on equity, making sure students who do not have access to devices or internet at home can get it and that educators are getting the training they need to best incorporate digital materials into their classrooms.
• For Edutopia, Johns Hopkins University doctoral student Beth Holland writes schools need to overcome the peril of digitized but still teacher-driven instruction to achieve the promise of true blended learning, where students get personalized and active learning experiences that fundamentally change instruction.

Dive Insight:

It is easier to bring new devices into the classroom and incorporate them into a traditional model of teaching and learning than to overhaul instructional practices. But advocates for blended and personalized learning say the overhaul is the only real reason to bring ed tech into the classroom in the first place.

With educational technology, students have the opportunity to get self-paced support and teachers get the ability to provide it more efficiently. Differentiation in large classrooms is difficult. But technology can help. And giving students more control over their own learning could better prepare them for the self-directed world of college and set them on a path toward being lifelong learners as adults.