Each year we ask principals to give us their feedback on our services, and share some insights on their school’s technology use. We had more than 450 responses.
Feedback from school Principals is incredibly important. It allows us to hear from schools, helping us improve what we do and informs our future planning.
Our most recent survey – run last September, included a few extra questions about technology plans and some of the challenges schools face using the internet.
Below are some of the high level findings.
- Moving to the cloud – This was identified as the second priority for schools (following the introduction of more devices as #1), with 37% saying they will move their records or data from their own servers into a hosted “cloud” environment offsite. This is why we asked guest blogger, Bill Bennett, to write some helpful articles for our website, covering some of the points for schools to think about when considering this move.
- Security from online threats is important – Principals told us “security from online threats” and “web filtering of inappropriate websites” were the second and third most important service we provide schools after providing a reliable internet connection.
- Schools using more devices – Almost 40% are planning to implement a one-to-one student-to-device ratio, with more secondary schools likely to be planning for this. We also asked what technology will have the biggest impact in the next three years, and “devices” was mentioned most frequently (112 mentions, or 26%), followed by robotics (14%) and coding (13%).
- Investing in wireless networks – More than half of schools (56%) are planning to invest in this area. Adding more devices to a school’s wireless network can add extra pressure to this infrastructure, and we recognise schools may need to invest in their own networks to keep up.
- Lack of home internet access can be a barrier to learning – We asked schools to estimate how many of their students live without a home internet connection. Just over half of schools (52%) say that 25% or more of their students don’t have internet access at home.
There is a notable difference for students living in more deprived areas, with over 85% of decile 1-3 schools saying 25% or more don’t have home internet access. Schools reported that students without internet access at home are more likely to be left behind or under-served. You may have read about these findings in the media last month, with both Herald and Stuff taking an interest in New Zealand’s digital divide.
The full survey results can be accessed here.