Survey Data: What technology Tools are Available in SD Classrooms?

I recently sent out a survey gathering information about educational technology use among South Dakota teachers. There are approximately 12,000 teachers in our state, my survey email was sent to 12,161 potential respondents and I recieved roughly 10 percent of responses back, about 1187 people responded by filling out the survey. I'll present some of the interesting findings here on the Educational Technology for teachers blog as occasion permits. Since I have not yet analyzed the data from the survey, these results are just preliminary, but still compelling. Today's post is about the availability of key technology tools in the South Dakota classroom.

Teachers were asked which of the following items are always or almost always available in their classroom, here's how they responded:

Technologies that are always or almost always available in South Dakota K-12 classrooms

Based on these results, we can infer that about 72% of South Dakota teachers have a laptop to do their work while only about 46% have desktop computers in their classroom. Only about 40% of teachers have a tablet computer such as an iPad to work with in the classroom. The most common technological tool in today's South Dakota classrooms is an interactive whiteboard such as a Smart Board, Promethean board or another brand. These are found in over 75% of South Dakota classrooms.

Based on this data, in all there are roughly 53% of south dakota classrooms that are 1:1 environments, in which a device is available for all students in the class, whether that device is a tablet, laptop or desktop computer. The most common 1:1 device is the laptop computer, and 34% of South Dakota classrooms have a laptop available for each student.

Another question that teachers responded to was about the technology tools available at schools but not always in the classroom. Here's how they responded:

Technologies that are available at South Dakota K-12 schools, but not always available in classrooms

Many different technology tools are available at schools, but some of the more commonly available items are laptop computers (35%), printers (59%), document cameras (35%), interactive whiteboards (32%) and classroom clickers for each student (37%). All of these items, except interactive whiteboards, are more likely to be available for checkout and occasional use rather than constant use in the classroom.