A May 2008 article in eSchool News reports that researchers surveyed about 400 school administrators between April and September 2007. This resulted in the 2008 America's Digital Schools report by Thomas W. Greaves of The Greaves Group and Jeanne Hayes of The Hayes Connection.
Here are some of the findings and related quotes:
- The quantity and quality of one-to-one computing programs has increased since 2006.
- "one-to-one computing is not a fad, but has lasting efficacy"
- "one-to-one computing can only be successful through teacher ownership"
- Online formative assessment is a trend on the rise.
- "The use of … online assessment … suggests a real improvement in using tests to help students learn what they don't know, rather than beat them over the head- after the fact--about what they don't know."
- "The only major inhibitor to online assessment, according to survey respondents, is the lack of suitable student devices with which to take the exams."
- Interactive whiteboards (such as SmartBoards) are now viewed as "standard equipment".
- "The report predicts that [interactive whiteboards] will be in nearly every school five years from now."
- While use of learning management software (such as Blackboard or Moodle) has increased, its full potential has not be realized.
- "Schools frequently take less than full advantage of the available applications."
- Internet bandwidth "remains in a state of crisis".
- "The average amount of bandwidth needed per student has climbed some 123 percent from year to year."
- "Two-thirds of those polled say they have implemented a policy to restrict the use of certain applications in order to conserve bandwidth--including banning streaming video."
