Robert Pondiscio, spokesman for the Core Knowledge Foundation, a Virginia-based non-profit group that promotes a coherent, cumulative and content-specific core curriculum, says hes dubious that simply moving materials online or onto e-readers will improve schools, dismissing much of the enthusiasm around educational technology as magical thinking.
While up-front costs for tablet computers are high new iPads start at $499 he says moving from to digital saves a ton of money in the long run. We absolutely want to push the process.
Administration officials say Web-connected instructional materials help students learn more efficiently and give teachers real-time information on how well kids understand material. We spend $7 billion a year on textbooks, and for many students around the country, theyre out of date, Genachowski says. In five years, he predicts, we could be spending less as a society on textbooks and getting more for it.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will recommend today at a summit of industry and education officials that states modify the textbook adoption process, allowing K-12 schools to use taxpayer funding once reserved for printed books on iPads, Kindles and the like as well as software.
Obama wants schools to speed digital transition? technology school,Obamas goal: an e-textbook in every students hand by 2017.
This sounds great, but now instead of a kid saying he lost his homework, hell say the machines battery didnt charge.
Matt MacInnis, founder and CEO of the e-textbook company Inkling, says the transition is essential. There is no future for American education unless we figure this out. Theres no segment of any industry anywhere in the world anymore that doesnt rtechnology schoolely on technology to get its jobObama wants schools to speed digital transition? technology school done.
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Theyll begin pushing publishers, computer tablet makers and Internet service providers to work together and lower costs if they want to sell their products to the nations 50 million schoolkids.
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Based in San Francisco, Inkling sells college textbooks online and by the chapter, them available for $2.99 apiece, in most cases, in Apples iTunes Store.
Karen Cator, the U.S. Department of Educations technology director, says moving classwork onto devices such as tablets gives students the ability to do research, check their work and get feedback from teachers, among other uses. One of the opportunities to extend the school day is by providing students with interactive and engaging environments outside of school, she says.
Reprints & PermissionsThe Obama administration is asking everyU.S.school to accelerate the transition to digital textbooks.
I wish there was even 10% as much thought as to what is going to come through these devices as in getting them into kids hands, he says. Its not a magic bullet. We need to worry about what is on these tablets while theyre sitting in kids laps.
