A new
report, Out of Print: Reimagining the K-12 Textbook in a Digital Age, from the
State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) urges states and school
districts to “commit to beginning the shift from print to digital instructional
materials” no later than the 2017-18 academic year.
Otherwise,
the report says, teachers and pupils will be stuck in another funding cycle
resulting in the acquisition of out-of-date content and inflexible print
formats. It could be another decade before they’d have the monies to replace print
with digital materials.
Some
state legislatures are already on board, such as Florida, which wants schools
to substitute electronic materials for at least half their books by 2015.
However, some educators think students aren’t ready for such a rapid move.
Tampa Bay Online reported on the problems one district had with digital books,
including login difficulties and students with limited or no access to computers
at home.
Those
are the kind of wrinkles schools will have to iron out. SETDA’s report points
to seven factors to address: sustainable funding for devices, robust Internet
connectivity, up-to-date policies and practices, prepared educators, intellectual
property and reuse rights, quality control and usability, and state and local
leadership buy-in.
SETDA’s
report recommends that schools establish and communicate “a clear vision for
the use of digital and open content,” which includes chucking any regulations
or policies that get in the way and finding dollars to ensure adequate
classroom technologies.
The
report also calls on government, education, and business to work together on
“alternative, flexible models” for the development and dissemination of digital
content.
