Report after report cites low usage rates for educational software, a problem driven largely by districts and schools not thinking through how an ed-tech product or service should be used before buying it. Complicating matters is the fact that there is no clear consensus on just what constitutes a “good” usage rate. Is it 25 percent, 50 percent, or 100 percent? Making sure the right students are using the right product at the right time is also a big challenge.
This special report is the first in a series of three special reports for the 2019-20 school year that Education Week is producing for K-12 ed-tech leaders. The report offers expert advice on how to improve the use of educational technology, a case study on one company’s failed effort to help districts track ed-tech usage, actionable insights about breaking through the barriers to good educational technology use, and lessons learned on how to save money by making some tough decisions about the applications and programs educators use.