Teachers who have been in the classroom five years or fewer are no more likely to use digital content than those who have been teaching for more than 20 years. This finding may come as a disappointment to those who hope that younger teachers will make better use of technology than their older peers simply because they grew up with it. There is much more to using technology effectively in a classroom than simply being facile with the equipment, experts say. You can't sit back on your hands and say it's going to take care of itself when the older teachers are flushed out of the system. Not surprisingly, most teachers in the survey think highly of the instructional software they currently have available in their own classrooms.
Teachers also express frustration about finding good software to meet their classroom needs.
The problem is especially acute in the higher grades. It's harder to work with supplemental materials. The pressure to satisfy curriculum requirements, particularly in states with specific academic standards and high-stakes tests, adds to the difficulty of finding appropriate digital content, experts say. Unfortunately, many teachers don't know where to turn to find out which digital content is aligned with their curricula. Only 12 percent of teachers in the survey say their state or district provides lists of software titles that match curriculum standards, and only 28 percent say their state or district provides opportunities for previewing software.