3 Reasons Districts Committed to Equity Should Set Up a Free Inventory Dashboard
Across the country schools are restarting, some fully remote, others in-person, and still others in a blend of the two. Regardless of the learning environment, it’s clear that technology will play a significant role in teaching and learning.
In fact, our own research shows that the number of edtech tools used on average each month by school districts in the U.S. exploded last spring, from 703 tools per month in 2018-2019 to 1,327 tools per month after schools closed in mid-March.
The result of all this edtech use is a growing digital learning equity gap nationwide.
While most districts have selected their primary edtech tools by now, their work isn’t done. Without a plan to evaluate whether those choices are working for all their teachers and students, they risk exacerbating the digital learning equity gap and miss the opportunity to address it. LearnPlatform by Instructure’s free browser extensions and Starter Account can help bring light to a district’s edtech use and provide actionable insights districts can use to get started on their path to continuous improvement.
Most importantly, districts doing this now will have baseline information, to be able to ensure learning is safe, equitable and cost-effective, if (when?) outside factors impact your learning environment.
Here are 3 great reasons to get set up with a Starter Account today:
#1 It’s about engagement, not just access.
You’ve worked hard to get everyone access to technology; but educators know learning is an active pursuit. It’s not enough for students to have access to the technology if they aren’t actually logging on and using the tools to drive learning.
Our cross-platform browser extensions give you fast and free views of which tools are being accessed in the classroom, how much they are being accessed, and how often, providing baseline insight into level of engagement. Best of all, you can access this information from one dashboard.
#2 Teachers need district support.
Professional development efforts deserve to be data-driven. The baseline information on engagement can inform where you need to focus training and improve implementation.
If certain edtech tools are showing limited adoption and utilization, districts can intervene with additional implementation support or training for teachers. If utilization continues to fall below goal, districts can decide to double-down on efforts, dive in for a closer investigation of potential obstacles, or reduce future investments.
#3 This year should be about continuous improvement.
There’s no quick fix for today’s challenges; ongoing evaluation of how your efforts are working is essential. Continued monitoring of engagement levels can help you see whether your efforts have had an impact over time, and direct adjustments to your professional development and support materials.
The Inventory Dashboard brings all the data from the browser extensions together to provide you with baseline analytics to inform edtech budgets, policy and instruction throughout the year.
Starting now, at the beginning of the academic year, is critically important for having access to district data when you need it. In just 15 minutes, you can get started—claim your inventory dashboard today.
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