Electronic textbooks in U.S. schools by 2017
Plans are in the works to get all U.S. students from kindergarten through 12th grade digitally connected in five years.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan have joined efforts to bring digital textbooks to U.S. students.
Genachowski and Duncan have launched (on 2/1/12) the Obama administration's "Digital Textbook Playbook." A resource designed by the Digital Textbook Collaborative. The "Playbook" is designed to guide educators in their transition from primarily print to mostly electronic resources.
The Digital Textbook Collaborative is a group convened by the Obama administration. It includes over two-dozen companies and organizations including Apple, Microsoft; the three biggest textbook publishers: Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, Pearson; and Sprint, and Verizon.
The "Digital Textbook Playbook" guides schools by addressing four main transition issues:
•Switching content to digital formats.
•Establishing internet connectivity throughout the school.
•Establishing internet connectivity throughout the community the school serves.
•Tailoring content to meet the capabilities of particular interactive learning devices used by students.
This initiative does not call for additional U.S. government funding.
The FCC currently provides more than $2.25 billion annually to connect U.S. schools and libraries to high-speed internet service. The FCC now has a pilot program for supporting wireless connectivity for mobile learning devices.
The U.S. currently spends $7 billion a year on textbooks.
The FCC, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Digital Textbook Collaborative will be recommending that states modify the textbook adoption process - allowing K-12 schools to use taxpayer funds (reserved for printed textbooks) on iPads, Kindles, and the like.
In addition, the Obama administration will begin pushing publishers, computer tablet makers, and internet service providers to work together and lower costs. The carrot being the sale of their products to the nation's 50 million school children.
The current K-12 textbook market is antiquated.
Improvements to digital versions of textbooks include interactive, video, and search features. The beefed-up educational content of e-textbooks can offer lesson plans personalized to learning styles and levels, and enable real-time feedback to teachers, tutors, and parents.
I applaud the Obama administration's federal-state-private partnership to drive innovation and the integration of technology into the classrooms, curricula, and the entire educational process in our nation's schools.
The "Digital Textbook Playbook" is a game plan to give high-quality, up-to-date, individualized, and standards-alligned resources to every student in America.
The Obama administration realizes, in order to win the future, our nation's schools need to out-educate the rest of the world.
Richard O. Schwab was formerly associate head of school, and middle school head, Cincinnati Country Day School. He is currently neighborhood team leader, Glendale Organizing For America Community Team (www.gofact.blogspot.com)
