The nonprofit organization is touting the results from its annual Speak Up survey as a means of giving lawmakers--as well as state and local education leaders--some guidance on how stimulus funds can be used to improve teaching and learning.

Project Tomorrow highlighted the results from this year's survey during a March 24 briefing on Capitol Hill. According to the group's report, students can be viewed as a digital advance team: They are early adopters and adapters of new technologies, creating new uses for various technology products to meet their sophisticated needs.

"What kinds of technologies are students using, and which are the types of things that students can use in school?" asked Julie Evans, chief executive officer of Project Tomorrow. Those are questions many educators are now asking as well--and the survey's results provide some answers.

More than 280,000 K-12 students, 28,000 teachers, 21,000 parents, and 3,000 administrators responded to the online Speak Up survey between October and December 2008.

The report focuses on five areas where schools can better incorporate technology: increasing the use of mobile devices, creating different types of spaces for learning, incorporating Web 2.0 tools into daily instruction, expanding access to digital resources in the classroom, and getting beyond the classroom walls to explore careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

Students say there should be more use of mobile devices in their learning. Students' access to mobile electronic devices--including cell phones, laptops, MP3 players, and smart phones--has increased dramatically in the past year, and these students are discovering the "computers in their pockets" can play a significant role in all aspects of learning, the report said.

"There's an acceleration of students' access to mobile devices, with the largest increase being seen in middle schoolers," Evans said.

Students who took the online survey said they would like to use their mobile devices to communicate with classmates or other students via eMail, instant messaging, or text messaging; work with their classmates on projects at home or school; and play educational games. They also said they would use their mobile devices to do internet research, record lectures to listen to at a later time, receive alerts about upcoming homework and tests, or access their school's web portal.

Student interest in taking an online class is on the rise, the survey found. Among high school students, interest in taking an online class rose 21 percentage points from 2007 to 2008, with a 46 percentage-point increase seen among middle school students. According to one-third of the sixth- through 12th-grade students surveyed, online classes make it easier for students to succeed, because they are more comfortable asking questions and can review class materials as many times as they want or need.