by Michael Plocher<\/p>\n
If your school is like most WELS elementary schools, you follow some sort of schedule to replace outdated student textbooks.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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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 This means that for some courses, some textbook content is most likely outdated within the first year, if not sooner.<\/p>\n
Outdated content isn\u2019t the only issue with printed textbooks. They are static and can\u2019t be modified to meet the varied reading needs of students. In today\u2019s world our students may be reading more than ever; however, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t designed to reach our students in this non-linear way they have become accustomed to.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Benefits of switching to digital textbooks<\/em><\/p>\n 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.\u00a0When 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t get damaged, and don\u2019t have to be carried home since students can access their digital textbook anywhere they have Internet access.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n Timeline for Implementation<\/em><\/p>\n 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\u00a0to\u00a0get\u00a0the information off the page, but also\u00a0to\u00a0add background knowledge, to make\u00a0inferences,\u00a0analogies,\u00a0inductive and deductive perspectives, and\u00a0to form\u00a0critical analyses as they read (Richardson, 2014).<\/p>\n 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<\/sup> 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).<\/p>\n The benefits of digital textbooks are real. Today\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Mike Plocher (DMLC 93) teaches at the 7th <\/sup>& 8th<\/sup> grade level at St. Paul\u2019s 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<\/em>.<\/p>\n References<\/p>\n 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\/<\/p>\n Courduff, J. (2011). Digital Textbooks and Students with Special Needs. Retrieved February 19, 2015, from http:\/\/teachinghistory.org\/issues-and-research\/roundtable-response\/25092<\/p>\n Discovery Education Techbook\u2122. (2015). Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http:\/\/www.discoveryeducation.com\/\/what-we-offer\/techbook-digital-textbooks\/<\/p>\n Herold, B. (2014). Digital reading poses learning challenges for students. Education Digest<\/em>, (1), 44.<\/p>\n 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<\/em>, (4), 22.<\/p>\n Richardson, J. (2014). Maryanne Wolf: Balance Technology and Deep Reading to Create Biliterate Children. \u00a0Phi Delta Kappan<\/em>, (3).<\/p>\n Rowsell, J., & Burke, A. (2009). Reading by Design: Two Case Studies of Digital Reading Practices. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy<\/em>, 53(2), 106-118.<\/p>\n The Center for Digital Education. (2014). The Curriculum of the Future (Issue 4). Folsom, CA.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>