Roughly 86 percent of U.S. teachers say computer technology has changed the way they teach at least some, and more than half (55 percent) say it has impacted their instruction "a great deal," according to a new survey commissioned by CDW-G.

The survey, conducted in February and March of this year, questioned 1,000 K-12 public school teachers. CDW-G employed market research firm Quality Education Data (QED) to conduct the study, which has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

"The use of technology in the classroom is not only here to stay, but it has an increasing presence and an increasing significance in what's going on in the classroom," said Deirdre Martel, marketing research manager at QED.

At least three-fourths of teachers surveyed recognized the importance of computer technology in teacher-related functions such as attendance-taking and record-keeping (86 percent), communication (83 percent), research and planning (79 percent), and classroom instruction (77 percent). These figures were up an average of 10 percentage points from last year's survey.

"It's important to note that, regardless of function, technology use is growing in almost every area," said Martel.

Supporters of educational technology greeted the results of CDW-G's 2005 "Teachers Talk Tech" report as welcome news. They say the survey offers a clear indication that technology is helping to transform instructional practices.

"For those of us who believe that technology can have an impact on education, it's gratifying to see that so many teachers are reporting that it's having an impact," said Keith Krueger, chief executive officer of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), a nonprofit organization that helps schools make smart and effective use of technology.

"It's definitely a very positive survey, and teachers are starting to change the way they get information and teach," Krueger said. "The positive way to look at it is that, almost across the board, teachers say technology is changing what they're doing."

Perceived skill level

Perhaps most heartening to ed-tech advocates were the significant gains in how teachers perceived their skills with respect to technology use, just in the last year alone.

Nearly sixty-two percent of teachers surveyed considered themselves at least somewhat advanced users of computers and software applications, and 18 percent considered themselves advanced users. These figures reflect a considerable increase from 2004, when 43 percent of teachers felt they were at least somewhat advanced users, and only 6 percent considered their skills advanced.

Only 3 percent of respondents considered themselves beginners, an encouraging decrease from the 9 percent who reported the same skill level in 2004.

Interestingly, these gains in perceived technology skills appeared despite no significant gains in the amount of training teachers reported receiving since 2004.