Digital Discourse / Education / Analytics and Metrics

Thanks for Making the Vision K-20 Survey a Success!

April 3, 2013 By

The Vision K-20 Survey comes to a close today and SIIA could not have had another successful survey launch without the help of our partners. We are on track to match or exceed last year’s all time high of 1600 respondents. This year we have also opened up the survey to international educators to see how educators around the world rate themselves on the Vision K-20 technology goals.

Our major partner in the Vision K-20 Survey project this year has been MMS Education. They have helped us host, analyze, and present the results of the survey. The team at MMS has been a great benefit to this project.

Key development partner Sue Collins of CollinsConsults has provided guidance and industry expertise to the development of the survey. She has also played a big role in report writing and presentations at various industry events.

Stay tuned for a NEW version of the Vision K-20 Survey later this month! We are launching a BETA version that improves upon the current survey and will allow for more detailed and accurate results. With all of the new developments SIIA and our partners hope to provide more information in more meaningful ways to our members and the ed tech industry on the whole.

A big thanks to our promotional partners who have helped us spread the word about this important survey: Campus Technology, CoSN, Curriki, Digital Learning Day, District Administration, eCampusNews, edWeb, eSchoolNews, Global SchoolNet, ISTE, iPoPP, NISOD, SmartBrief, SXSWedu, TechLearning.com, The Big Deal Book, THE Journal, Today’s Catholic Teacher, University Business, and We The Teachers.

 

Lindsay HarmanLindsay Harman is Market and Policy Analyst for the SIIA Education Division.

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Filed Under: Analytics and Metrics, Ed Tech Government Forum, Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education Tagged With: , , ,

Take the Vision K-20 Survey – closes Thursday, June 30

June 27, 2011 By

For the fourth year, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has been monitoring the results in its national survey: Vision  K-20. The 2011 survey, which closes Thursday, June 30, asks participants to help benchmark their institution’s use of technology in meeting their educational goals. We’ll be very curious to see if there’s been any real progress in this past school year.

As the Association of companies who provide technology tools and content to education, SIIA members felt a responsibility to promote a “vision” of the best technology uses to help educations and K-20 students achieve an inclusive 21st century education. The Vision initiative includes a website (www.siia.net/visionK20/), booklet, and an online survey.  The survey helps educators benchmark the use of appropriate tools, providing access, closing the achievement gap, use of assessment tools and enabling the enterprise – through the use of technology.

Of the benchmarking questions, the highest ranking was in access to high-speed broadband (both for instructional, administrative and collaborative learning) and security tools (to protect student data and privacy). The greatest room for improvement still lies in increasing technology-based assessments, access to online courses, and personal ePortfolios for individual students.

In past years, the average increase in overall scores was less than 1 percent year-over-year.  That means educational institutions are making VERY SLOW progress in achieving SIIA Vision K-20 benchmarks. Will it be different this year?

Help us build on this baseline data and find out how much progress is being made. We invite all interested educators to participate in this year’s survey here. Monitor the your progress in using education technology for 2011, to be part of this year’s survey, we need your input by Thursday, June 30!

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Filed Under: Analytics and Metrics, Education, Education Events, Education Policy, Uncategorized

New SIIA survey highlights benefits/challenges of social media in education industry

June 7, 2011 By

 

Like most industries, the education sphere is continuing to experiment with and grow its use of social media. But which tools have proven most effective, and why? In a new survey by the Software & Information Industry Association, together with edWeb.net and MCH Strategic Data, education technology companies were posed the question: how do you use social media?

Social media allows companies to engage in conversations from a many-to-many standpoint – going beyond talking at customers – to including them in a conversation. The report, Social Media Marketing in Education, describes some of the challenges of using social media in this niche market, and highlights some of its benefits beyond lead generation and ROI measurements.

The benefits of social media in the ed-tech sphere include brand awareness, increased customer loyalty, and general market knowledge and insights. As one respondent stated, “it’s like creating a virtual 24/7 conference.”

However, the 182 education industry executives who were surveyed also pointed to the specific challenges they faced when developing social media initiatives. Though 35 percent of respondents stated that their company did, indeed, have a social media plan – the same percent reported that they had no defined strategy. Companies report continued challenges including finding staff to manage it and generating activity and content. Suggested solutions include repurposing existing content and spreading the information workload among insular experts within an organization.

As the trend to utilize social media tools continues to grow, the indirect benefits remain hard to measure, but difficult to ignore. One respondent states, “it’s a community that educates us as a company, turning the market into networks.”

To learn more about the current leveraging of social media networks within the industry, read the full report here.

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Filed Under: Analytics and Metrics, Education, Social Media