The majority of K-12 edtech leaders say they believe AI can benefit education, and roughly one-third have a generative AI initiative–but cybersecurity remains at the top of their priority lists, according to the 2024 State of Edtech District Leadership report from CoSN, as reported in eSchool News.
This year’s top findings include the following:
- The majority of edtech leaders (97 percent) see benefits in how AI can positively impact education and over a third (35 percent) of districts report having a generative AI initiative.
- Cybersecurity remains the top concern for edtech leaders, with 99 percent of districts taking measures to improve protections.
- A majority (93 percent) of districts are using technology solutions designed to address or improve student well-being.
- Cybersecurity ranks number one on edtech leaders’ lists for professional learning, with 85 percent of respondents indicating they were extremely or very interested. Second was IT crisis preparedness with 78 percent, followed by driving and sustaining K-12 innovation with 77 percent.
- Edtech leaders cite the inability to hire skilled staff as a top challenge, ranked second behind budget constraints.
According to the results, districts are modernizing their infrastructure; however, more responsibilities such as HVAC, phone systems, and physical security systems come under their purview and run on the school network. Edtech leaders are also challenged by persistent problems such as hurdles to hiring highly-qualified IT talent, issues of student home internet and device access, funding cliffs as pandemic funds expire, and enormous threats of cybersecurity attacks.
eSchool News
