Measuring Technology Impact in Schools

(MTIS)

With ICT underpinning almost all aspect of running a school, it's important that schools have access to actionable data that can inform future direction and improvements. Most schools have no measure of success for their ICT implementations, yet all schools spend considerable money on facilitating technology. In order to make better decisions we need evidence of our progress and success. Without clear measurement of performance and growth, justifying funding, executing projects and defining success can be near impossible.

If we want to improve learning with technology schools must track the progress of their technology plans. MTIS aims to do exactly this by examining staff confidence. With a simple annual survey MTIS gives your school a benchmark of teacher confidence that is informed by how accessible, reliable, useful and easy staff perceive technology to be within your school. To enable actionable insights, MTIS tracks the types of activities teachers undertake with technology, how teachers gain new skills to use technology and where schools can improve their support of teaching with technology.

Participating in MTIS means gaining greater perspective on your school activities, the chance to learn from other schools, share your own success and build a case for change in your school.

MTIS consists of 3 components:

1. School Information Survey

To collect information on the school like student count, devices in use, etc.

View the survey here.

2. Teacher Survey

A teacher survey is created for your school and administered once a year. Asking the same questions each year will enable us to track school growth.

View a sample of the Google Form here.

3. MTIS School Report

A report will be produced and sent to your school outlining growth, insights and opportunities for improvement. We also share the raw results from the survey with you.

Getting started with MTIS

At this stage MTIS is in beta and only open to select CoET member schools.

If you'd like to participate, the first step is to fill in the School Information Survey here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSejenbDZ18QAeRYaT5I9gKUxmnD-AkI8hZ11vFPUnPgn9v6JA/viewform

Once filled in we can setup a custom survey for your teachers to complete.

FAQ's

Why measure confidence?

In order for teachers to feel confident using technology, a lot of factors have to be addressed. Things like, ease of access, reliability, to access to skill development and more. Confidence has been linked in many research papers ( eg: Wozney, Venkatesh, and Abrami) to improved instruction and engagement with learning technologies.

Why not force teachers to pick a side instead of allowing a "neutral" response.

We use the research backed Likert Scale. The likert scale argues that the need for neutral is important, and when averaged over the staff population.

Will other schools see my results?

School results and School Report will only be shared with the member school. No staff names or details are collected during the surveys and results remain completely anonymous (only tied to the school). Our reports may compare your school to other like schools, but these "comparative" schools will not be named in any way and will remain anonymous.

Why not survey students as well?

Our first goal with MTIS is to keep the process as simple a possible, introducing a second survey will make administering the process a lot more difficult. Also, collecting student results also has further privacy implications.

What if our school finds poor results confronting?

If you're worried about poor performance, don't be! MTIS only offers a snapshot of specific measures. This report should be used as evidence that further investment, effort or planning is required. In short, if staff perception is low, this report simply exposes what you're most likely feeling, now with some evidence you should have a catalyst for starting significant change.

What if teachers aren't honest when answering questions?

Of course this an issue with any survey, but we have taken every measure we can to encourage honesty. Firstly, we ask that questions be answered honestly at the start of the survey and reassure teachers that the survey is anonymous. We've also limited the survey to 10 questions to keep teachers engaged in answering thoughtfully.

Not another survey, aren't teachers over surveyed?

Yes, most teachers probably are. The hope is that with only 10 simple questions we can bring about meaningful change and improvement. In other words, it's worth the cost.