May 2007 — Features
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Digital Publishing :: Out of Print
Teachers like Ken Tong, for example. Tong is a science instructor at Seattle's Ballard High School, where he teaches chemistry, physics, and digital electronics. At about the same time that Givens' Texas elementary school kids were wowing parents and teachers with their computer skills, Tong was pioneering the use of computers for science and math education in the Northwest. "I remember when the overhead projector was considered cutting-edge technology," he says. "A lot of the early teaching software was for mathematics. I think it's a subject that is easily translated to computers. But the selection was limited to spreadsheets and word processors- nothing like we have today."
YOU SAY POTATO...
Interactive printed material goes by many names: digital books, virtual books, electronic books, and e-books.
Tong actually began working with the Kinetic Books physics material three years ago, before it was commercially available, or even finished. "My students and I took it for a test drive," he says. "They liked it, and so did I. The material is comprehensive and based on established physics texts used by many colleges. It impressed me as a complete system-textbook, lab, and online homework system. I don't have to go out and buy separate pieces of software."
Physics textbook publishers may be the most aggressive print-based publishers moving to provide digital options, Tong says. "They are now putting things online and coming to us with all kinds of digital resources for teachers. I think some academic subjects are probably more naturally adaptable to digital media. But I also think companies like Kinetic are getting their attention."
Tong says digital textbooks have allowed him to change his teaching methods. "I used to lecture for most of the class period," he says. "The effectiveness of that approach was really questionable. I don't think teachers want to stand up at the chalkboard and lecture anymore. It's not where they want to be these days. Now I start class by posing a question on the topic I want to talk about for the day. Then I take 15 to 20 minutes to go over the basic topics and demonstrations. And then the students get on the computer and start taking more notes from the [online] textbook."
Moving From Print to Digital
One of the largest and oldest textbook publishers, Pearson Scott Foresman, is making the transition to the digital age rather smoothly- and not with math books, says Bob Harris, the company's regional vice president for the Pacific region. Last summer, the company made a bit of history by redefining the way social studies is taught in elementary schools in California.
That's when seven of the largest districts within the Los Angeles Unified School District adopted Scott Foresman's History-Social Science for California program. Developed exclusively for California, the program blends printed text with digital- and activities-based instructional methods to provide a complete digital curriculum, including online books, video, and interactive learning and assessment tools-all of which focus on state standards. The program is also available in Spanish, and it includes tools that support English language learners.
"All of our [digital] programs in the future will have core instructional content and training for teachers," Harris says. Getting this kind of thing approved for statewide adoption can be a long process. The company actually began developing the program in 2004. In late 2006, the California State Board of Education approved and implemented the program as part of California's adoption of new history-social science instructional materials for K-8 students. This year the company will present its new K-6 math program to the state's evaluation committee, starting the whole process all over again.
