i3 - September/October 2020 - 38

Business

By Steve Koenig

M A R K E T B E AT

he sudden nationwide shift to remote education by
schools this spring was a major test for technology,
teachers and students alike. But with the help of robust
digital tools, remote education programs made the grade, new
research from CTA shows.
Now, as the back to school season
educators with previous remote teaching
approaches, many school systems are
experience are significantly more likely to
preparing to virtually welcome students
identify many other technologies as
returning to class. But what were the
important distance education tools,
lessons learned from the remote educaincluding: STEM (science, technology,
tion pop quiz this spring? CTA's COVIDengineering and mathematics) products
19 Impact: Technology and Remote
(64%), augmented reality/virtual reality
Education study (July 2020) examines
(AR/VR) headsets (60%), smart TVs with
the virtual classroom experience from
an integrated webcam (59%), digital
the perspective of teachers and parents
assistants (58%) and robotic toys (56%).
of schoolchildren. The findings illustrate
What's more, 83% of educators with
technology's central role in distance
previous remote teaching experience were
learning, but is there
very or somewhat satisroom for improvement?
Parents of chil- fied with the remote
education experience
dren who had
this spring, significantly
Remote Learning
previously
above the mean satisfacLessons
engaged in
tion level of 61%. The
One key observation of the
remote educa- same is true among parstudy is educators experition were signifi- ents. Parents of children
enced in remote education
who had previously
tend to use a broader
cantly more
range of technologies and
likely to indicate engaged in remote
methods, like gamification,
high levels of
to teach. This suggests
satisfaction
training or coaching of
(80%),
versus
teachers new to the remote
the mean score
classroom could amplify
their effectiveness - and
of 64%.
enjoyment - of distance
learning. Notably, less than
two-thirds (63%) of parents say (strongly agree +
agree) their child's teachers are adequately trained to use technology products and services for remote education.
Teachers cite a core set of digital tools
as important in remote education, including laptops (84%), smartphones (71%),
tablets (69%), desktops (64%) and external webcams for TVs (52%). However,
38

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

i3_0920_38_Business_MarketBeat.indd 38

education were significantly more likely to
indicate high levels of satisfaction (80%),
versus the mean score of 64%.

Maintaining Connections

Importantly, teachers and parents also
agree on the efficacy of remote education and the quality of interpersonal
connections despite the distance. Nearly
two-thirds (64%) of teachers and 70% of
parents surveyed in the study say
(strongly agree + agree) their students/
children are learning because of implementing remote education technologies.
Additionally, 71% of teachers and parents believe technology products and
services help maintain connections
between teachers and students in a
remote education environment.
Does this mean remote education is
the new normal for schools? Not likely.
The data show teachers and students
both prefer the physical classroom to a
screen. Less than half (48%) of teachers
say they would prefer to teach at least
some classes remotely and even fewer
(44%) say they would choose to teach
remotely in the future. Meanwhile, a
slim majority of parents (55%) believe
their child enjoys remote classes.
Technology innovation has clearly
helped remote education endeavors
achieve some early successes, and more
lessons will be learned this fall.

Damir Cudic/Getty Images

Technology Helps Remote
Education Make the Grade

I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

9/1/20 10:51 AM

https://shop.cta.tech/products/covid-19-impact-technology-and-remote-education https://shop.cta.tech/products/covid-19-impact-technology-and-remote-education https://shop.cta.tech/products/covid-19-impact-technology-and-remote-education

i3 - September/October 2020

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