http://www.classroom-aid.com/blog/bid/60915/It-s-a-Digital-World-Why-not-Digital-Textbook
It's a digital world. Just looking back about the history of digital cameras replacing traditional cameras, the reason is so obvious and I guess no one will ask why it happened. Although e-books on e-readers had already drawn much attention and, of course, market share of paper books in these years. Actually the internet delivering information and knowledge in varied forms efficiently had already broaden the definition of reading before e-readers got popular. The format of the static book is only one type of carriers that carry intelligence of humans. The interactivity, flexibility of conservation, transfer, archives, re-use and re-mix , real-time property and lower cost of digitized contents have enabled active reading and nourished creativity. Another point is the paper books can't be tagged, linked or searched, thus they are not efficient for knowledge management. So it really doesn't matter if digital books will replace paper books totally.
In real world, the way we learn has been changed forever. Why the paper textbooks still dominate the way students learn in schools ? Or, are we standing on the verge of an important transition ? Al Gore's "Our Choice", a digital book distributed as an iPad app that was introduced in a TED talk earlier this year, points to some of the potential for what 'digital textbooks' may be capable of. In this article by Dr. Cavanaugh : Getting to know a digital textbook, explores more advantages of digital textbooks, such as text-to-speech, note-taking and auto summary functions.
This is not a status report, and we don't limit to K12 nor higher education here, the ideas behind the following highlights are what matters, since the definitions of digital textbooks are still evolving. While you can refer to this fact summary on textbook current status.
What's happening about digital textbooks ?
CSU System Shares E-book Pilot Results (By Tanya Roscorla) - It shows that the digital textbooks pilotted in 2010 weren't quite ready yet.
So you want to use e-textbooks next year ? (by Hans Mundahl) - a review about 3 e-textbook providers : CourseSmart, CK-12 Flexbooks, Inkling. CourseSmart has the most titles and very current offerings, and every one of their books is rental material. Inkling has done the e-textbooks right since e-books should not be only electronic version of printed books. Inkling is the one to watch for 2012-2013. CK-12, open source textbook provider, offers free text books in a wide variety of subjects. Currently they have more than 4500 titles which can be fully customized by the teacher. Teachers can mix and match chapters and books to create a fully customized textbook.
6 Companies Aiming to Digitize the Textbook Industry (by Sarah Kessler) - CafeScribe, VitalSource and Inkling provide social features, students can join groups to automatically pool their notes and make studying collaborative, professors can also create groups for their classes. Inkling packs its titles with quizzes, interactive infographics and tappable key terms; it allows students to purchase books by chapter. Nook Study is the FREE desktop ereader for textbooks by Barnes & Noble. It allows students toread, search and annotate textbooks, as well as keep track of related documents and use the Internet to look up definitionsand others, like formulas, directly from the text.
Textbook Publisher Announces ‘App’ Approach to Learning Materials (by Jeff Young) - On the new e-textbook publishing platform by Cengage Learning, the traditional textbook content is only a small part, it bundles other materials and electronic test-bank system, and allows professors to customize the presentationof the material, by adding their own slides, video lectures, articles, or free online content from elsewhere, and pulg in apps like tutoring services or the ability to trade margin notes with other students. They are also working with third-party e-learning companies to let them build add-ons that can be added directly into the e-textbooks.
Amazon Launches Cross-Platform Textbook Rentals (by David Nagel) - Textbook rentals are available through the free Kindle reader app, which is available for almost all devices along with Kindle. It's estimated that rentals can save as much as 80 percent off the list price for a print edition. In addition, all notes that students have taken and highlights they've made in their textbooks will remain available to them in the Amazon Cloud even after a rental expires. But the available titles are limited now.
Textbooks Go Electronic (by Amy Standen, Edutopia) - The digital format allows students to interact with the material, conduct computer-based experiments, and move at their own speed. The low-cost textbook combines a complete course's worth of instructional text, with hundreds of simulations, game-like exercises, and assessment tools. The program includes homework that students do online and submit electronically to their teacher. The assignments are graded instantly -- kids can see how they did, and take another try. So it's easy to differentiate individual learning.
Publishers Launch First Digital-Only Textbook for K-12 (by Sarah Kessler) - McGraw-Hill launched its first all-digital, cloud-based textbook for the K-12 market at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference. Its new format,CINCH, is a cloud-based curriculum for K-12 math and 7-12 science. It makes all course materials, which include ebooks, presentations, assessments and animation clips, available from any device with a browser through the new digital resource platform. Students in a class can also participate in Facebook-like conversations that stay with the text. Also Pearson announced that its digital K-8 program for mathematics and reading would be joining McGraw-Hill’s new CINCH texts on the cloud.
What happens when all textbooks are (only) digital? Ask the Koreans! (BY MICHAEL TRUCANO, from A World Bank Blog on ICT use in Education) - The potential issues such as privacy and security are raised.
Supporting Hardware Technologies
Of course the infrastructure and hardware are all necessary supporting elements to facilitate digital curriculum.
South Korean Schools Go Paperless. Can Others Follow? (by By Audrey Watters, MindShift) - To build cloud-based computing system and boost the WiFi infrastructure, furthermore, the government says it will give tablets to low-income students are several actions.
Google's Chromebook Plan Could Be the Answer to Updating Outdated Schools (by Lisa Nielsen) - From her witnessing as she has watched and supported one-to-one laptop rollouts in schools is that in many cases there are issues with internet access and device repair, these factors are determinative to succcess.
Regarding all the issues around going digital.The solution can be found from the whitepaper by David Thornburg Ph.D. (founder of Thornburg Center) "As early as 1984, John Gage, from Sun Microsystems, had coined the phrase “The Network is the Computer” to describe the then-emerging world of distributed computing. Web-based applications reside in the Internet “cloud,” not on the user's computer. So we don't need expansive devices for students. The bigger challenge for schools is bandwidth. Consider having a class full of students streaming different videos to their computers during class. The challenge is not generally in the local area networks connecting the classrooms – modern networks operate at blindingly fast speed. The real issue is the speed of the school's connection to the cloud. The solution is to trade bandwidth for local storage -“storewidth". A device inside the school's firewall that contains web-based applications can take pressure off the Internet, plus provide an extra level of security for student records." This is why "OpenClassroom" the private cloud server is created. This simple device, with all web2.0 tools and management tools built-in along with pre-loaded curriculum resources, can be plugged into the school's network, allowing it to be accessed by any computer in the school and from home.
More and more schools go digital by implementing one-to-one or BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) in classrooms, for example,PoweronTexas is a collaborative project initiated by TEA (Texas Education Agency) to share experience about using technologies to transform education, especially BYOD. Education policy is crucial to preserve the equity of device accessibility to every student. We believe the most cost-effective solution will prevail in future. Actually implementation of digital textbooks with varied devices in different scale has been undergoing in many states. And some states had set the goals on going digital in schools : Florida looks at taking school textbooks completely digital by 2015 (By Marlene Sokol and Jeffrey Solochek), and California is moving in that same direction.
Different points of view
Some Resources For Moving Beyond Textbooks (by Patrick Larkin, from Connected Principals) - Very inspiring statement : "I think it is also important that we do not jump too quickly at the e-versions of textbooks that companies are scrambling to sell to us. It is my belief that the textbook companies are banking on the fact that public schools will take the easy way out and become dependent on the e-texts. However, given the time, I know that my teachers can create a much more meaningful resource for their classrooms." Somre resources for creating e-curriculum are shared here.
In this featured Cerritos College-led open educational resources project by NextGenLearning.org : "The use of open educational resources (OER) will reduce textbooks costs, eliminating a significant obstacle to success for low-income students, says M.L. Bettino, dean of academic affairs for Cerritos College. It will also allow institutions to collaborate to refine and improve course content, closing the loop between course design and student learning outcomes." Because of the digital resources on internet available, OER and OCW can solve the current unaffordable textbook status. Many universities have worked on collaborative publishing of open source e-textbooks from educators. OER is a big topic but absolutely worth to study, the effort in there is very inspiring for cost-down of education.
There have been too many articles and discussions about digital textbooks within 2011, this post only covers some of them. It's sure that there are many to-do-list items to embrace this transition. But from the 21st century mindset we like to share this quote from the ending of this post :“Content is King”: What Is The Role of The King (Content) Today? - Let’s not make students “sit and get” when it comes to digital content, but instead, make them part of the engaging content assets. (so are teachers) You are welcome to share your experience and thought.
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