State of Technology in Education: Increasing numbers of teachers and school leaders turning to tech

Promethean’s State of Technology in Education report reveals that over twice as many respondents identified a focus on ‘delivering educational benefits through technology’ as last year

Promethean has released the first two sections of its State of Technology in Education report 2019/20, revealing an increasing number of teachers turning to tech.


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The fourth edition of the report shows that almost 40% of senior school leaders want to use technology to enhance collaboration in the classroom – nearly twice as many as 2017/18. Almost half (49.7%) also want to use tech to boost engagement, an increase of around 35% from last year. An overall focus on ‘delivering educational benefits through technology’ has also more than doubled, from 9.1% in 2017/18 to 22.1% this year.

However, there also appears to be less confidence in schools’ strategic visions, with only 51.7% of respondents saying they believe their school has a clear strategic vision, a decrease of 17% since last year.

Leadership has no one strategically responsible for technology and most are technophobes.
– Primary school teacher, London

The lack of strategy is often blamed on a failure of leadership (40.9%), with teachers and IT staff being most critical of school leaders. However, only 7.4% of teachers say they take a key role in their school’s strategy.

One primary school teacher from London is quoted in the report as saying: “Leadership has no one strategically responsible for technology and most are technophobes.”


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Teacher workload is also covered in the report’s early release, with 70.7% of teachers saying that workload is harming learning. 32% of SMT members reported using tech to boost teacher productivity as a priority.

The first two sections of the State of Technology in Education 2019/20 report are available here.