In the 2023–24 academic year, artificial intelligence (AI) became more prevalent in classrooms, policies banning the use of cellphones at schools gained popularity and the U.S. Surgeon General issued a warning on the negative impacts of social media on youth mental health.
As education and technology become more intertwined, results of the State Educational Technology Directors Association’s (SETDA) annual survey, summarized in The 2024 State EdTech Trends Report, provide insight on how state education leaders (state chiefs, chief information officers and educational technology directors) view various edtech topics.
Four key findings emerged from the survey:
- As in 2023, cybersecurity is the prime edtech priority for state leaders in 2024, although fewer feel their state is giving sufficient funding to support cybersecurity.
- State agencies are stepping up to meet educators’ need for support on responsible adoption of AI policies.
- With a historic period of federal relief ending, leaders are experiencing anxiety about funding; home connectivity and access are still the top unmet needs in states across the country.
- State education leaders should encourage effective and equitable use of edtech as states begin to invest more in their own capacity.
Fourteen percent of respondents said their state has initiatives underway related to AI — up from 2 percent the previous year — and states’ top priorities include cybersecurity, AI and equitable access to internet.
Home access connectivity (27 percent) and funding (26 percent) are the top unmet technology needs. Ensuring students have access to high-speed internet in their homes is a work in progress for many, and “efforts to bridge the digital access divide will likely continue in 2025 and beyond with the implementation of the federal Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment Program and the digital equity programs under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, along with new E-Rate program flexibilities,” according to the report.
Other unmet needs are professional learning for educators to use instructional technology tools (24 percent) and cybersecurity (19 percent).
Survey respondents indicated that educator recruitment, retention and/or training (22 percent); improving academic outcomes (21 percent); workforce readiness (12 percent); mental health (10 percent); and equity (9 percent) were top priorities in the coming year.
