Digital content’s impact on teaching and learning

A digital conversion is occurring in schools across the nation, with many schools moving from printed textbooks and computer labs to digital textbooks and content, and one-to-one or bring-your-own-device initiatives. But how, exactly, are schools going about this digital conversion? What benefits are there to using more digital content?

When it comes to digital content’s instructional benefits, school principals who participated in the Speak Up survey reported that digital content increases student engagement (74 percent), extends learning beyond the school day (60 percent), personalizes learning (45 percent), and improves teachers’ skills with technology (44 percent). When properly implemented and used faithfully, digital content’s benefits are many. Still, obstacles remain. More than half (55 percent) of principals said their schools don’t have enough computers and Internet access to support digital content. Forty-two percent said evaluating the quality of digital content is a barrier to its use, and 38 percent said they don’t have enough bandwidth in schools. Thirty-two percent said teachers aren’t properly trained–or trained at all–to use digital content.