Experts Support Genachowski’s Digital Textbook Goal, but Debate Feasibility

Connectivity is an issue, with a third of Americans lacking broadband at home, said Josh Gottheimer, Genachowski’s aide who is leading the commission’s broadband adoption efforts. For the books to be successful, students must be able to access them outside of school, and that requires broadband connectivity, he said. Gottheimer cited measures being taken by the FCC to expand connectivity, including the Connect to Compete program, which offers low-priced broadband and laptops to families of children qualifying for free school lunches.

Practicality is another significant issue for digital textbooks, and the biggest reason schools haven’t already completed the transition, National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel told us. He said school districts would have to add an array of new expenses to their already tight budgets, including new equipment and extra sections of employees. “Transitioning to a new dynamic and more personalized model is a big transition to make,” said Vice President Dave Stevenson of Wireless Generation, a maker of education software.

Making the switch means “significant initial and ongoing investments in planning, bandwidth, equipment acquisition and repairs, software, support, and teacher training,” said the Digital Textbook Playbook (http://xrl.us/bmqgua). The book is designed by the Digital Textbook Collaborative to help schools make the switch.

To provide the books to each student, schools must buy thousands of laptops or tablets, spend funds on updates and repairs, train teachers and hire new employees for IT support, Van Roekel said. He said school districts must build new infrastructure and come up with extra money to allow for all the changes. “The potential is so great, but it’s a big endeavor for a school district to convert, even over five years,” Van Roekel said. “Those aren’t obstacles, but they are things that have to be planned for."

Districts could spend from $200 to $1,000 per student per year for 1:1 implementation (one laptop or device for each student), according to the playbook. Project Red, a group researching digital learning in schools, reported the overall cost per student as $593 annually. The switch won’t cost too much if schools reallocate current resources, said Mark Edwards, superintendent of Mooresville, N.C., school district, a 1:1 digital learning district.

Mooresville students in grades 3-12 have MacBook Airs. The overall cost to the district, including lease payments, hardware, software and maintenance costs, is $200 per student yearly, Edwards said. When the district started moving toward a 1:1 program, it found additional funding from items the district no longer bought, like calculators and globes. The added infrastructure costs were covered by grants and reallocated funds, and the district did not have to hire any new staff, Edwards said. Each school’s tech help desk is run by existing employees or high school students trained for basic computer repairs and troubleshooting. Any district can make the switch if low-funded Mooresville can, Edwards said, and costs can be recouped over time if districts plan it well and make the switch gradually.

Cost savings from the switch could eventually outweigh expenses, said Ann Flynn, the National School Board Association’s director of education technology. “Some people have found they can do it within the confines of a traditional budget if they rethink it.” Overall savings from the switch are estimated at nearly $600 per student yearly due to “increased teacher attendance, reduced copy and paper costs, using online assessments, using digital versus print materials, online learning [and] decreased dropout rates,” the playbook says.

Digital textbooks also offer advantages that some people think will outweigh the costs and difficulties involved. “Students are fluent in technology,” and they learn better using it, Stevenson said. The digital textbooks Genachowski is encouraging schools to use are different than the typical e-book and monumentally different than traditional books, said Matt MacInnis, CEO of digital textbook maker Inkling. The digital textbooks go beyond the usual pages of text. Interactive materials like videos and assessments are included within the books, making a more personalized experience for students, MacInnis said.

"When a student reads a textbook and gets to something they don’t know, they are stuck,” Genachowski said the digital learning town hall. “Working with the same material on a digital textbook, when they get to something they don’t know, the device can let them explore: It can show them what a word means, how to solve a math problem that they couldn’t figure out how to solve.”

Genachowski hopes the books will also put an end to outdated information, he said. Traditional textbooks are often outdated, and some students are still learning out of books written before 9/11. It’s expensive to publish and ship millions of textbooks every year, and that makes it difficult to update printed books, Van Roekel said. With digital textbooks, quicker, more simple updates can be made and do not require a reprint.

Increased student responsibility is one advantage Mooresville has seen from digital learning, Edwards said. There is only a 2 or 3 percent MacBook Air damage rate and no reports of theft or lost laptops among the students. Having the laptops causes the students to take responsibility for not only the devices, but also for their learning, Edwards said. He said it helps them see how their learning will affect their future.

Digital books are also more economical for publishers and consumers, MacInnis said. Publishers cut out two parts of the selling process -- the printing and shipping costs. They only have to pay for content. The books cost less than traditional textbooks, MacInnis said, and some companies such as Inkling sell books by the chapter, rather than making students buy the entire book. One would at first think that publishers would lose money by selling cheaper versions of the same books, but they will actually be saving money, he said.

Traditional textbooks can be bought once but re-used by multiple people without additional revenue to the publisher, MacInnis said. A digital textbook can only be used by one person for a certain amount of time. A traditional textbook could be sold to one person for $200 and be used by four different people, MacInnis said. A digital version could be sold for $50 and bought by four different people. Either way, the publisher would make the same amount of money because digital textbooks generate more purchases.

Digital learning is “the perfect storm in a good way,” Flynn said. It will be difficult for some schools, but will be worth it for the benefit it offers to students, she said. Most schools are already in the process of changing, Edwards said, and finishing the switch in five years is a conceivable goal for many.