What's holding back the digital curriculum? A lot of things: too few classroom computers, poorly conceived professional development, and a lack of time to research and plan--to name three big factors, according to a new report from the nonprofit Education Development Center (EDC).

The study, "Effective Access: Teachers' Use of Digital Resources in STEM Teaching," examines how high school teachers use digital libraries and other electronic resources to support "science, technology, engineering, and mathematics" (STEM) exploration and instruction.

Despite the recent progress touted by some policy makers--progress some are using to justify cuts in ed-tech spending--EDC researchers found that schools still lack the appropriate infrastructure to integrate the full-scale use of digital materials into the classroom, and teachers do not receive the proper training to make full use of available classroom technologies. "Effective Access" also says most teachers don't have the time to properly research and plan the use of digital curricula.

The study asserts that STEM teachers want web-based materials that save time and energy, such as easy-to-use search engines; the ability to easily determine the validity of digital resources; web sites that are easier to navigate; interoperability of digital resources in the multiple-platform environment of most schools; and materials that illustrate real-world applications of STEM concepts.

Katherine Hansen, director of the project, said she and the report's co-author, Bethany Carlson, first started looking into the issue of how digital materials were used for STEM instruction when they were developing online courses.

"We were intrigued by this disconnect between the assumptions of those who are developing digital resources --including ourselves--and the end users," Hansen said. "It seemed to us that there didn't appear to be an integration between the canon and the pedagogy on the development side [and the curricular needs of those] on the education side."

The study was based on the surveys of 236 teachers across the United States. While not a full-scale, representative investigation of the use of digital curricula by American high school teachers, "Effective Access" nevertheless deepens the discussion of how such resources are perceived, gathered, and used.

"This is a small study," Hansen said. "We don't want to say it applies to everyone." Still, the findings reflect many of the concerns and frustrations expressed by educators across the curriculum: Teachers need better technological infrastructure and the time and professional development to integrate it into the classroom.

Availability of technology

One of the big issues that the report's findings appear to confirm is that any discussion of the availability of web-based content is linked to a discussion of access.

More than 70 percent of teachers said they use the internet "frequently or always" to prepare for class, and 58.5 percent of respondents said they use the internet in class with similar frequency. Yet most of those interviewed complained of inadequate availability of hardware. Just over 47 percent said they have only a single computer with internet access in their classrooms, and 41 percent said they have access to a computer lab. But a quarter of teachers don't have such access, and others who do say it's hard to get into the labs.