The 2018 Teaching with Technology Survey was published by the website Campus Technology. Of those questioned, 44 percent said technology made their job easier, while 29 percent said it made their job much easier.
The study also looked at how technology helped teaching effectiveness. A large majority of educators, 87 percent, said technology had positively affected their ability to teach.
Eleven percent said they felt technology had no effect on the quality of their teaching. Just two percent said technology had a negative effect on teaching.
These results parallel some of the findings we had in some recent research. There were concerns from the faculty about whether or not technology was helping improve student outcomes.
In releasing the study results, Campus Technology reported that some teachers had expressed mixed feelings about the use of technology. These opinions came in the form of open-ended questions answered directly by educators.
The educators were not identified. One noted that the learning process can suffer if students depend too much on their devices. “People can easily get addicted to their devices, and using technology can change the way the brain develops – not always in a good way,” the teacher wrote.
Another educator wrote: “Technology is accidentally increasing students’ weakness in reading and figuring things out (or critical thinking). They confuse clicking with learning.”
Along with the “why” of technology in instruction, there were questions about the possible harmful impacts of screentime on students.
The Gallup study also asked teachers to give their opinions on the possible harmful effects of digital device usage.
About 55 percent of K-12 teachers said the effects of digital devices on students’ physical health are mostly harmful. Forty-two percent said they felt the devices are neither helpful nor harmful.
And about 69 percent of teachers said they feel digital devices are mostly harmful to students’ mental health.