The Speak Up 2008 National Data Findings about digital content will be presented by Julie Evans, CEO-Project Tomorrow, on Wednesday Sept 16 at 12:00pm Pacific.  During this one-hour webinar you’ll learn more about the findings and hear from panelists about how their school districts are helping teachers integrate digital content into their curriculum.

More than 29,000 teachers shared their views through Speak Up 2008, this webinar highlights the teachers’ perspectives about digital content, including:

• the types of digital resources they are using in the classroom
• where they obtain the resources
• the barriers to integrating digitial resources

You’ll also hear the perspectives of students and parents about the features and functionality they would like included in their ultimate online “textbooks.” 

The one hour webinar begins at 12:00pm Pacific, click here to register today!

From Project Tomorrow:

ImageProject Tomorrow® and T.H.E. Journal are joining forces to provide a series of six FREE — and timely — hot topic webinars based on the results from the nationwide Speak Up surveys. The Speak Up data provides:

* Essential data to determine how well your school or district measures up to others across the nation
* Priceless feedback from over 1.5 million K-12 students, administrators, educators and parents on all critical areas of the education experience
* Quantitative and qualitative findings to effectively plan, execute and complete projects

Attend one, two or all six of these FREE, richly informative webinars to improve your decision-making capabilities. Seminar topics include:

Mobile Devices within Instruction
Aug 19, 2009
12:00 PM Pacific

Digital Content
Sep 16, 2009
12:00 PM Pacific

Web 2.0 and Education
Oct 14, 2009
12:00PM Pacific

21st Century Skills
Oct 28, 2009
12:00PM Pacific

Top 10 Trends in Student Learning with Technology
Nov 11, 2009
12:00PM Pacific

Internet Safety
Dec 2, 2009
12:00PM Pacific

Space is limited, Click here to register today!

Save the date: Speak Up 2009 opens Oct 12th-Dec 18th

ImageWhat burning questions do you have? What topics would you like to ask your students, parents, teachers or administrators? We would like to hear your ideas about the topics or types of questions that you have. This spring, we polled staff from our Speak Up 200 schools to get their perspective about the hot ed tech topics for the 2009 - 2010 school.

Top 5 picks:

* Using blogs, wikis, or social networking sites (Web 2.0) within instruction.

* Offering classes online.

* Using students’ mobile devices within instruction.

* Justifying expenditures on educational technology.

* Improving student achievement using your current hardware and software.

We’d like to hear from you.. What do you think are the top educational technology issues this year — send us your thoughts via email,
Twitter@SpeakUpEd, or post a comment on our blog.

Click here to share your ideas about Speak Up 2009

Thank you for your continued support of Speak Up — we look forward to your participation in Speak Up 2009.

Enjoy your summer!

Laurie Smith
Director, Research & Evaluation
Project Tomorrow
w) 949 609-4660 ext 17

Welcome! Project Tomorrow annually conducts Speak Up surveys (since 2003), collecting and analyzing data from 18,000 schools across the US, Canada, Mexico and Australia. (You can find many more reports at the Project Tomorrow site).

This Expert Voices blog is a question/answer and discussion forum for the NSDL community resulting from two recent presentations by Project Tomorrow Director Julie Evans. The first was a short presentation to NSDL Pathways projects PIs in May 2009, the second was a June 8 presentation to NSDL staff.

See presentation: Speak Up 2008 National Findings - NSDL 06-08-2009

You can also view Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up blog

Some key findings from Speak Up 2008:

-Speak Up surveys clearly indicate a digital disconnect between student expectations and teacher/parent expectations around use of technology in K12 settings. This disconnect is alive and well, and thriving…

-Students comprise a kind of Digital Advance Team -> they are forward and quick-moving, in both adoption and (perhaps more significantly) adaptation, in the way they utilize technology to enhance their education experience

-”Email is just for grandparents” -> students have moved past email (primary communication tool is social networking); whereas teachers almost universally use email as their primary communication and networking mechanism

-Lower elementary grades are the leaders in virtual and gaming experiences in classroom settings

-Student criteria for evaluating online credibility: .com = not good, don’t use; .edu = good to use; .org = maybe, maybe not; .gov = not to be trusted

-Teachers are accustomed to viewing tech in education as a method of engagement for students.  Is it time to move on from this notion? Students have gone way beyond ‘engagement’. They are already engaged - they characterize the use of tech in education settings with a more business-like approach:  as a means for achieving productivity gains (e.g., students want to get alerts/reminders via their mobile devices for classroom assignments, homework, projects)

Curious? Bewildered? Fascinated? Explore the information, ask questions, and get answers from Project Tomorrow’s Julie Evans and Laurie Smith.  Carry on!