86% of Teachers Spend Their Own Money on Tech CPD

TLDR; Most teachers surveyed spend their own money on professional development. They should be applauded, but we all need to do more to help.Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have published their 2017 Educator Confidence Report. It's got plenty to keep a stats junkie going for a while - and EducationDive have a good summary - but a few things jumped out.

• Nearly all teachers use tech in some kind of professional capacity :D
• Confidence in using tech is growing :)
• 1/3 of teachers surveyed said a lack of tech PD was a concern :(
• The vast majority (86%) spend their own cash on accessing tech PD :|

Let's pick up on that last one. Professionals spending their own money on developing their skills isn't inherently a bad thing. In fact, it's something to be celebrated.And it's certainly proof of demand for tech PD - and suggests that there is an increasing diversity of supply i.e. providers outside of schools / districts stepping in to meet that demand.But ... we do have to ask whether someone else should be helping to foot the bill here. Are teachers spending their own money to enhance provision and take their learning further? Or, are they spending because they're not getting what they need?Teachers benefit directly from increasing their skills, but others do too. Should companies contribute toward the cost as a way of investing in their future talent pool? What about parents? Or the tech companies selling hardware and software to schools - are they doing enough? And surely the education system itself needs to do more.Addressing tech skills in teaching is something we should all be focused on. We should applaud teachers who invest in their own PD, but we should also be asking "what more can everyone do to help"?