by Michael Plocher
If your school is like most WELS elementary schools, you follow some sort of schedule to replace outdated student textbooks. The curriculum has been studied, and now it’s time to make a decision on a new textbook that more closely aligns with the content your school plans to teach. If everything goes according to plan, roughly every eight years you will have replaced the textbooks for each subject taught in your school.
Eight years is a long time to go between updating textbooks, yet WELS elementary schools justify holding on to them as long as they can because the cost of purchasing new ones sooner can be prohibitive. This means that for some courses, some textbook content is most likely outdated within the first year, if not sooner.
Outdated content isn’t the only issue with printed textbooks. They are static and can’t be modified to meet the varied reading needs of students. In today’s world our students may be reading more than ever; however, it’s not the type of reading older generations of students did (Carr, 2008). Increasingly, reading is being done on screens and online. This has led many students to process what they read differently than in the past.
Information our students are reading online is presented in an efficient, multimodal, and immediate way (Manderino, 2015). This has led our students who regularly read online digital content to become decoders of information rather than deep readers who make rich connections as they spend time pondering the text.
With digital texts the reading path our students follow is not a linear path as it is with print texts; rather, they choose the path to follow as they move through the material (Rowsell & Burke, 2009). Printed textbooks aren’t designed to reach our students in this non-linear way they have become accustomed to.
Because of these issues, the time has come for WELS elementary schools to incorporate digital textbooks to help ensure curriculum content will be as current as possible, textbook funds go farther, and students can be better reached in the way they read.
Benefits of switching to digital textbooks
Switching to digital textbooks helps ensure content is current (The Center for Digital Education, 2014). Publishers such as Discovery Education continuously update their online textbook, which they call a techbook. When the planet Pluto was demoted, Discovery Education revised this information in their online digital science techbook and included resources on the reason for its status change.
Switching to digital textbooks is economical. Printed textbooks in an elementary school can cost $70 per student, can become damaged, and can be heavy when carried to and from home. Online digital elementary textbooks are licensed for about $6-$8 per student per year (Discovery Education, 2015), won’t get damaged, and don’t have to be carried home since students can access their digital textbook anywhere they have Internet access.
While it is cost-effective to switch to digital textbooks, the technology infrastructure must be in place both in the school and at home so children have 24/7 connectivity to ensure successful access to their digital textbook. Finally, vast amounts of resources and planned connections are included in digital textbooks, saving prep time needed by teachers.
Switching to digital textbooks can powerfully meet the needs of students with special needs. When it comes to these students, the complex language used in printed textbooks at times is too difficult for them to read. Digital textbooks allow content to be modified with simpler language while providing hyperlinks to difficult concepts and vocabulary (Courduff, 2011.) Additionally, students with vision impairments can use text-to-speech and have the text read aloud to them. Finally, digital textbooks also allow font-size and text and background color to be tailored to individual student’s needs.
Timeline for Implementation
Digital textbooks should be implemented after children have learned to read well. The goal in teaching reading is to have children become expert readers. This means we want them not only to get the information off the page, but also to add background knowledge, to make inferences, analogies, inductive and deductive perspectives, and to form critical analyses as they read (Richardson, 2014).
When students read digital texts, they tend to skim the text in search of specific information rather than dive in deeply to draw inferences, construct complex arguments, or make connections in their own lives (Herold, 2014), thus discarding familiar print-based strategies for boosting comprehension. Because of this, it is suggested to start implementing digital textbooks around 5th grade. By this age, children will have learned to be fluent enough in their reading to become connected to the comprehension process that makes up the expert reading brain circuit (Richardson, 2014).
The benefits of digital textbooks are real. Today’s students are growing up in an icon-driven world filled with video. They function better when they are not faced with long paragraphs of text (P. Lee, personal communication, March 23, 2015). Our textbooks need to reflect this change. Digital textbooks can be used to better reach students who are accustomed to reading digital print, can be modified to help special needs students be successful, and are economical, providing relief from tight budgets. They should be used in WELS elementary schools.
Mike Plocher (DMLC 93) teaches at the 7th & 8th grade level at St. Paul’s Lutheran School in New Ulm, Minnesota, focusing on science, math, and technology applications. He is pursuing a Master of Science in Education with a technology emphasis from Martin Luther College.
References
Carr, N. (2008). Is Google Making Us Stupid? Retrieved March 3, 2015, from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/
Courduff, J. (2011). Digital Textbooks and Students with Special Needs. Retrieved February 19, 2015, from http://teachinghistory.org/issues-and-research/roundtable-response/25092
Discovery Education Techbook™. (2015). Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.discoveryeducation.com//what-we-offer/techbook-digital-textbooks/
Herold, B. (2014). Digital reading poses learning challenges for students. Education Digest, (1), 44.
Manderino, M. (2015). Reading and Understanding in the Digital Age: A Look at the Critical Need for Close Reading of Digital and Multimodal Texts. Reading Today, (4), 22.
Richardson, J. (2014). Maryanne Wolf: Balance Technology and Deep Reading to Create Biliterate Children. Phi Delta Kappan, (3).
Rowsell, J., & Burke, A. (2009). Reading by Design: Two Case Studies of Digital Reading Practices. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(2), 106-118.
The Center for Digital Education. (2014). The Curriculum of the Future (Issue 4). Folsom, CA.
This is a very interesting topic. Our twins use the techbook in US History at St. Paul’s. I have only looked at in a cursory manner because the twins are not the kinds of kids who welcome parents’ interference, for better or worse. I agree with both the positives and negatives pointed out in Mr. Plocher’s article. I think it is good, great even, that the fifth-graders are introduced to an alternate format of learning. I do worry about “deep reading” but, then, it might not be different with a paper textbook. I did expect more of an enrichment component to the techbook. The additional links tend to lead to simple explanations, more of a remedial benefit, it seems. I did not see as much depth to content as I expected, I guess, but then, it may be operator error in my case.
Kremena –
There are activities provided to get students deeper into the material. These activities are found under the Explain and Elaborate tabs within the social studies techbook.
Materials found under the Explain tab requires students perform higher level thinking activities by having them summarize and analyze what they have learned.
The Elaborate portion has activities where students dig deeper into topics through further readings and activities. In one example students trace the spread of European colonies across the North American continent through an interactive map and readings. They finish this activity by working through materials to understand the motives that led the European countries to establish these colonies.
I think digital text books could be good for our Lutheran Elementary Schools, but I do have some concerns.
1st is that most of the textbooks available today come with a certain world view of Secular Humanism. They promote that agenda and at times are specifically anti Christian. This would be no different thought than with paper text books.
2nd is that there are at least a few studies out that have shown that there is a major difference between reading from digital sources and reading from the older tech of books. That those that read books comprehend better and get a much deeper understanding of the text. Where the digital text tends to not stick with the reader. I don’t know for sure if this is completely true or was something just in those few reports I have seen, but it would signal that maybe we should do some research before jumping off the technical deep end.
3rd since these digital text books would be coming from the major sources of school text book companies, these books would be compliant with the Common Core Curriculum. I am not sure we as a synod have adopted this curriculum, but I don’t think so. And without further discussion and research I am not sure it would be a good thing for our students.
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 7:10pm
Adam — We use Chromebooks at St. Paul’s; however, the techbook can be accessed on a variety of devices, operating systems, and locations since it is cloud-based.
I checked with our teachers who teach with the social studies techbook and they told me it works well on Chromebooks. They also access it with their SMARTBoard connected Windows-based PC and have no problems with it, but did report they have to enlarge portions of the image at times since the text can be a bit small when projected. A couple teachers also have a personal iPad that they sometimes use to access the techbook. They had no issues when using that, but did report that using the techbook boardmaker app on the iPad was somewhat clumsy.
MIke- what do you use for distribution of the techbooks? Do you use iPads or computers? I know many schools are invested in Chromebooks, does this application work well with those, or is it better suited for iPads?
Adam — We use Chromebooks at St. Paul’s; however, the techbook can be accessed on a variety of devices, operating systems, and locations since it is cloud-based.
I checked with our teachers who teach with the social studies techbook and they told me it works well on Chromebooks. They also access it with their SMARTBoard connected Windows-based PC and have no problems with it, but did report they have to enlarge portions of the image at times since the text can be a bit small when projected. A couple teachers also have a personal iPad that they sometimes use to access the techbook. They had no issues when using that, but did report that using the techbook boardmaker app on the iPad was somewhat clumsy.
Our high school Physics book (Holt) came with 7 years of online digital textbook access with virtual labs and other activities for students. This was a good deal when averaged out over the 7 year time frame. On the other hand, (McGraw Hill) our Algebra and other math textbooks are not good at providing reasonable prices on electronic textbooks. The prices run around $16 per student per year. As Joshua says, I am not sure mainline textbook publishers update their content often enough.
Josh — Even though my article is about digital textbooks in the elementary school which is where I got my $6-8 pricing plan, I can tell you that Discovery Education does offer high school techbooks — Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth & Space Science (all adopted by the state of TX in fall 2014). The pricing for these techbooks runs $9 per student per year. A quick look also shows that they also offer World Geography (9th grade) and U.S. History (11th grade) which came out of beta this winter for Fall 2015 implementation.
I think we are at the beginning of a shift in thinking when it comes to publishers of digital textbooks. Discovery Education isn’t willing to follow the outdated practice the major publishers follow when they convert their static print content into static digital content – at the same price as print! This is not what people are asking for. Instead Discovery Education understands that the demand in today’s education environment is in the delivery of online multimodal digital textbooks at a sub $10 price point. It seems like the major publishers you deal with at the high school level need to adopt this newer model if they want to stay relevant.
Just so you know, we were so impressed with what we saw from Discovery Education that in September 2014 we implemented their Social Studies Techbook for grades 5-8 at St. Paul’s in New Ulm.
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Voces is another non-open source sub $10 interactive digital textbook publisher for high school courses. Their offerings currently include U.S. History, Grammar & Writing, Introductory Spanish, Spanish 1 and 2, Literature, and Nonfiction courses. Keep in mind they do provide full courseware and not just interactive eTextbooks. Their pricing plan is also very attractive and could be as low as $399/yr per course if you go with a 5 year license @ $1,996. This license buys you one teacher and all the students enrolled in that teacher’s course over 5 years! I pulled this information off their website but have no experience with their materials.
http://aboutvoces.com/
Your quote a cost of $6-$8 per student per year for digital textbooks, but your source (Discovery) has only Math, Science, and Social Studies texts available. The major publishers that we work with at the high school level have not followed this low price model. At this point, on a 5 year text replacement cycle, we are still finding that the printed books (many of which do include access to a digital version, but it is static content). Have you (or anyone else reading this) found any other sources (aside from open-source) of high quality online texts that are being priced in the sub $10/year range?