School tech tidbits

Almost two-thirds of K-12 teachers say that the availability of computers improves student performance on standardized tests, and 77% say they don't have enough computers for students in their classrooms, according to a "Teachers Talk Tech" poll unveiled at the recent National Education Computing Conference. Another interesting highlight, from a survey by NetDay, found that "teachers think their students learn about technology from their friends first and from their teachers secondly. In reality, students feel that friends, self-exploration, family, and TV and radio ads all have a stronger influence than teacher recommendations." That survey also found that 71% of teachers said they would use students to provide tech support or expertise in the classroom (interestingly, older teachers were more comfortable with student tech support than those 29 and under).

As for negative online encounters in school: TechLearning's InstantPoll found that 75% of school tech decisionmakers give their districts relatively high marks for adequately protecting students from inappropriate content. But despite their best efforts, 59% report incidents of students accessing inappropriate Web content at school in the past year. The content they're referring to was games (45%), pornography (39%), and music file-sharing (19%).