Flashback Friday: Speak Up 2013

Happy Flashback Friday! Every Friday we focus on Speak Up data, articles, and press releases from the past. In honor of Speak Up's launch this past Monday, we're taking a look at data from Speak Up 2013. Check out some data from our report, "The New Digital Learning Playbook: Understanding the Spectrum of Students' Activities and Aspirations" below:

• Girls outpace boys in use of many digital tools for learning, particularly the socially based tools like texting and collaborating online.
• 29 percent of high school boys say that they are very interested in a job or career in a STEM field, but only 19 percent of girls say the same. This gap remains even among girls and boys who self-assess their technology skills as advanced. During the seven years that the Speak Up surveys have polled high school students on their interest in STEM fields, the level of student interest has not increased significantly.
• Students continue to report less regular interaction with traditional social networking sites like Facebook, while 44 percent of students in grades 6-12 report using social media apps like Instagram, Snapchat and Vine. Nearly one-third of high school students reported using Twitter.
• One-quarter of students in grades 3-5 and nearly one-third of students in grades 6-12 say that they are using a mobile device provided by their school to support schoolwork (these percentages were greater among Title I schools than non-Title I schools).
• In four years, the percent of middle school students taking tests online increased from 32 percent to 47 percent.
• High school students reported a mean average of 14 hours per week using technology for writing.
• Only one-third of middle school students say that for schoolwork reading, they prefer to read digital materials rather than printed materials; more than half, however, say online textbooks would be an essential component of their “ultimate school.”
• Digital equity, including to student access to the Internet outside of school, is a growing concern among district technology leaders with 46 percent saying it is one of the most challenging issues they face today (compared to just 19 percent in 2010).

This year we've added more questions about Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), data privacy, student interest in programming and computing, and online assessments. What will this year's results be? Contribute to the conversation by participating in Speak Up 2014! 

 Speak Up provides an easy way for students, parents and educators to participate in local decisions about technology, as well as contribute to the state and national dialogue about educational technology. Data from the surveys - including data regarding online classes - will be released in February 2015. Click here to register for Speak Up 2014, and be sure to take the survey before it closes on December 19th, 2014!