Online Schools Getting Mixed Reviews

As the popularity of online public schools grows, so does concern about the quality of education students are receiving.  Supporters see the programs as innovative and affordable, while public officials in a number of states are reporting poor grades and worse graduation rates.

New applications for online schools in Maine, New Jersey, and North Carolina are being denied, according to a Yahoo! News report, while the auditor general of Pennsylvania claims online schools in his state are being overpaid by at least $105 million per year. In addition, state education officials in Florida have accused virtual schools of hiring uncertified teachers and an Ohio study reports that nearly every online school in that state ranks below average for student academic growth.

Cyber-school officials note their students are often behind traditional students and need time to catch up. A recent study by the University of Arkansas showed steady improvement for students who remained in online schools for several years.

However, a Stanford report found online students in Pennsylvania made “significantly smaller gains in reading and math” than traditional public school students. At the same time, the first virtual school in Tennessee had the lowest possible score for student growth.

“I’m not closing the door on it, but we have to do it right,” said Assemblywoman Connie Wager, who has held public hearings on virtual schools in New Jersey.

Digital Content Report Draws Line in the Sand

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Otherwise, the report says, teachers and pupils will be stuck in another funding cycle resulting in the acquisition of out-of-date content and inflexible print formats.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.

K-12 Schools Trying Out Tablets

A growing number of K-12 school districts, anxious to save money while preparing students for 21st-century work, are purchasing iPads in lieu of print textbooks and sometimes instead of desktop computers. Districts view the tablets as more budget-friendly than computers and more versatile than books for class use.

Across the U.S., there are tales such as this one in Seattle where the district decided all 181 middle-school youngsters should bring their own iPads to class this year. Students who couldn’t afford to buy one could borrow from a pool of 100 tablets bought with funds originally designated to replace several computers.

According to an investors’ report cited by C/Net, PC sales to the K-12 market are dwindling at about the same rate as K-12 iPad sales are rising, indicating schools are switching to tablets. They’re not just buying iPads, either.

Kuno, a tablet created specifically for K-12 use by the CurriculumLoft company, is among the Android gadgets competing head-to-head with the iPad for school sales. Business2Community says Kuno is attractive to district decision-makers because its base model costs 25% less than an iPad and it comes with built-in filters to protect kids from accidentally (or intentionally) accessing web content they shouldn’t.

Samsung is also working with Memphis, TN, schools on a new tablet system geared to K-12 grades. Each tablet comes with a stylus that lets students hand-write notes, which can be converted to type and saved.

Why are tablets getting all the attention from school districts and not e-readers such as the Kindle or the Nook, given their lower price point? In the view of Good E-Reader blogger Michael Kozlowski, it’s mainly because most e-readers lack text-to-speech software for vision-impaired pupils and can be more cumbersome to use.

Media Company Looks to Profit from Education

The Association of American Publishers estimates the K-12 textbook market approaches $3 billion in the United States, with an additional $4 billion spent on teacher guides, testing, and reference material. So it should come as no surprise that companies other than traditional publishers are looking to grab a piece of that pie.

Discovery Communications, which owns the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and TLC, is doing just that with the introduction of a line of digital textbooks called Techbook that will provide video, virtual labs, and downloadable content, according to a report in The New York Times.

“It’s kind of perfect for us,” Discover Communications CEO David M. Zaslav told the Times. “Educational content is core to our DNA, and we’re unencumbered—unlike traditional textbook publishers, we’re not defending a dying business.”

Tough words perhaps, but education publishers are not going to concede their turf without a fight. Pearson, McGraw-Hill Education, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have all introduced digital educational products and recently teamed with Apple to sell high school textbooks through its iBook store.

“Over the last 10 years alone, we’ve invested $9.3 billion in digital innovations that are transforming education,” said Will Ethridge, CEO of Pearson North America. “One way to describe it would be an act of ‘creative destruction.’ By this I mean we’re intentionally tearing down an outdated, industrial model of learning and replacing it with more personalized and connected experiences for each student.”

In the meantime, Discovery has a staff of 200 working on its Techbook project. The cloud-based technology works on any hardware a district might be using and will cost about $38 per student for a six-year subscription, compared to the $70 average price for a traditional textbook.

“Television is always going to be our primary focus, but we’re incredibly excited about the business potential of the Techbook,” Zaslav said. “Education is an area of solid, sustainable growth.”

Techbook is only targeting K-12 students for now, so it’s just scratching the surface of education’s “business potential.”

Print Textbook Price vs. iPad Textbook Price

An info graphic that recently appeared in MercuryNews shows that the cost of switching students’ four core courses from traditional textbooks to Apple’s new iBook 2 digital textbooks could cost school districts three times more.   Based on a classroom size of 32 students and four textbooks, including workbooks, lasting six years, the research shows that a school district would incur cost of approximately $11,328 for a traditional textbook program.  For an iPad textbook program that includes replacement of hardware after four years along with software, and e-textbooks, the cost is estimated to be $36,000.

The info graphic is a good step towards accounting for the factors that goes into the economics of e-textbook programs in K-12.  However, considering schools can resell the iPads after four years the cost for the iPad program could be much lower.  Of course, that could be off-set by replacement costs from lost, stolen, or damaged units. Nevertheless, until there is ample evidence that indicates technology such as iPads improve student’s learning, school districts should be wary about diving into a device-driven e-textbook program.   

600 School Districts use iPads for Course Materials

Are iPads better investment than traditional textbooks?

One principal in Boston thinks so, according to this story in eSchoolNews.  The article states that Patrick Larkin, Principal at Burlington High School, believes the $500.00 iPads are a better long-term investment than textbooks.  When asked about textbooks, Larkin said,

I don’t want to generalize, because I don’t want to insult people who are working hard to make those resources but they’re pretty much outdated the minute they’re printed and certainly by the time they’re delivered.  The bottom line is that the iPads will give our kids a chance to use much more relevant materials.

More than 600 school districts in the country now have a one-to-one computing program using iPads ranging from wealthy suburban schools to school districts in New York and Chicago, according to the article.  However, experts in the article warns that districts looking to adopt such devices need to ensure the resources are available to support wireless infrastructure, repairs, and other costs associated with a such programs.

E-textbooks in California K-12

Here is a recent article in EdWeek on eTextbooks in Riverside, California K-12. One of the interesting aspects of the article is the focus on pilots and experiments, and the lessons learned. The article describes some of the challenges K-12 has in building digital course material initiatives, including: money for infrastructure to deliver digital textbooks and the tools students need to access them, political support to change polices around textbook adoption, and perceived quality differences of digital versus print as learning media. Approaches that are device agnostic are seen as critical.

On the flip side, the use of digital is believed to increase 1-on-1 learning time and student engagement. As one teacher notes: “It’s not about digitizing a textbook as it exists now,” he says, but using technology to improve the learning experience."

The article is accompanied by a good short video on e-textbooks in K-12. The embedded code was not working properly, so I have autogenerated a separate post with the video.

Young Readers Starting to Become E-Readers

There have been a number of studies showing that college students continue to prefer using printed books when taking a class, including one from OnCampus Research. However, the OnCampus Research study also added it was a trend that may not last long as younger readers begin to get more familiar with using electronic readers.

Now, the New York Times is reporting that publishers are seeing increases in sales of children’s and young adult e-titles. The article provides details from both HarperCollins and St. Martin’s Press that show jumps in digital sales of young-adults e-books in just the first month of 2011.

One possible explanation for the increase is that price drops in the electronic devices made them attractive for younger readers last Christmas. The Times also suggests K-12 teachers may be getting reports that some K-12 teachers are beginning to allow leisure reading on the devices during homeroom or in English classes.

Self-Paced E-Learning Expected to Boom

State budget cuts in education and other financial constraints prompted by the recession are pushing more preK-12 schools to replace classroom instruction with online and electronic courseware products and services that children can use at their own pace, according to a new study by Ambient Insight].

The U.S. Market for Self-Paced eLearning Products and Services: 2010-2015 Forecast and Analysis study examined both web-based products and services as well as tangible media, such as DVDs. The study predicted self-paced electronic instruction will rise 16.8% in the preK-12 market by 2015.

As schools cut teaching staff, more are turning to self-paced systems for such programs as summer school or remedial classes. Schools used to reserve self-paced learning for specialized courses or to accommodate students in remote locations, but an increasing number are now experimenting with self-paced learning in core subjects.

Self-paced e-learning is also expected to grow in higher education. The Ambient study noted the hi-ed market would probably ramp up to become the No. 2 consumer of self-paced e-learning products by 2015, right behind the corporate market. At present, however, hi-ed institutions are more interested in installing lecture capture systems.

Trial and Error in the K-12 Classroom

A number of K-12 schools are experimenting with the use of laptops, netbooks, and tablets as standard classroom tools, even to the point of replacing print books with the hardware. But, some schools are finding it’s a mixed bag, as this article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shows. Students love the “cool” factor but it is not clear if computers are actually helping them learn better, and schools don’t necessarily save money on course materials.

And the article inadvertently highlights why the publishing industry is skittish about e-books: One youngster who lost his paperback “finds” the novel online and therefore is able to keep up with the class. Problem is, The Lord of the Flies isn’t yet in the public domain (and will not be for nearly 40 more years), so the boy is apparently accessing an illegally pirated copy.

Three R's begin with i

While watching the list of school closings this morning, there was an interesting story on about the use of iPads in one of the local schools. Each of the students in the fifth grade class has been given an iPad. Here are a couple of the more interesting quotes from the story:

The teacher [Bizan] says iPads have improved student performance in spelling and math and student attendance is up.

"It makes people want to learn. It makes people want to come to school," said Rachel Lyman, a fifth grader.

Bizan says about 75 percent of his instruction takes place on the iPad now and he expects in the not-too-distant-future that'll be 100 percent.

Of course, my favorite quote -- or perhaps the one which is most telling, is the following from the classroom teacher:

"Five to six years from now, or 10 years from now, textbooks, I see them being gone and being on some kind of device," said Bizan.

You can find the story transcript or watch the video clip online on our local news station's site.

Children’s Reading Trends in the Digital Age

On Tuesday, December 14th, Book Business will be hosting a free webinar that you may find interesting. The webinar is called: “Children’s Reading Trends in the Digital Age: An All-Access Pass to Scholastic’s ‘2010 Kids and Family Reading Report.’”

The registration page for the webinar can be found here.

Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day

On Saturday, December 4, the first Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day will be held. Blogger and creator of the day, Jenny Milchman, hopes that it will encourage families to bring their children to a bookstore so that they can see all that the physical store has to offer. For more information visit: http://www.takeyourchildtoabookstore.org/.

Project Tomorrow’s Learning in the 21st Century: Taking it Mobile! report

Project Tomorrow has released a new report that includes key mobile related findings from its Speak Up 2009 survey.

According to the report, student access to mobile devices has more than tripled in the past few years. In 2006, 9 percent of high school students said that they owned a smartphone with internet access and now 31 percent say that they do. In addition, 24 percent of 6-8th graders say that they own smartphones. This increase in smartphone ownership has led to a change in student opinion about the primary barrier to using technology at school. In the 2008 study, the majority of students said that their school’s internet filters were the primary barrier to using technology but now 78 percent of 6-12th graders with smartphones say that the biggest barrier is the policies that prevent them from using their own devices. In addition, when students were asked how schools could make it easier for them to do their school work, 64 percent of high school students and 60 percent of middle school students said that they want to use their own devices.

When students were asked to design their “ultimate school,” 56 percent of middle and high school students said “mobile computers for every student” (examples include: laptops, mini-notebooks, or tablet PC’s). In addition, 52 percent of middle and high school students said that mobile devices would have the greatest positive impact on learning. More surprisingly, 52 percent of students in kindergarten through second grade said that their “ultimate school” would include laptops for every student.

The study also found that 62 percent of parents said that if their child’s school allowed mobile devices to be used for educational purposes, they would likely purchase a device for their child.

For more information, you can download the full report here.