The Future of Textbooks: ACU Connected Review, Part II

The books are highly engaging, have accessibility options for students with special needs, and are developed by a passionate staff.  The title list is a little low right now (relative to the availability of printed textbooks), but the sheer complexity of embedding the level of interaction in these books requires diligent effort. 

I downloaded a trial chapter to give it a run and concluded that this model is the future of textbooks.  I’d encourage you to check out Inkling’s features to gain a better grasp of what they’re doing to contribute toward the future of textbooks.  The video below demonstrates Inkling in action.

OER, Connexions and the Next Textbook

by Sidney Burris, Dean of Engineering and Member of Connexions Boards, Rice University

Open educational resources (OER) are learning resources that may be freely used, modified, and redistributed. 

What is Connexions?

• “Connexions is a repository of information available through the web on the Internet.”
• “A set of tools for authoring, maintaining, and using, the content of the repository.”
• “A community of people who share educational interests and information.”
• With Connexions, books can be created on-the-spot based on individual student needs.  Books can be bounded, downloaded, and have free interactive content online.

This Slideshare presentation further highlights on Connexions.  I’m not sure this particular Slideshare presentation was created by Sidney Burris, but the content of it reflects his message.

Freeing the Textbook: Building a Sustainable 21st-Century Publishing Model

by Jeff Shelstad, Founder and CEO of Flatworld Knowledge

Flatworld Knowledge values quality content and they copy the publisher model. They pass control of the content to the local expert, and their content is openly licensed and customizable.

• Content is free to view online and can be downloaded for offline use for a fee.
• Like Connexions, content is reusable, revisable, remixable, and redistributable.
• One of the concerns of some other open models is the integrity of text.  The integrity of text is maintained by leading experts, peer-review, and edited with the highest standards. 

It’s exciting to envision the future of textbooks in education!  Where will we be in five years?  By then, I hope digital textbooks have moved beyond rhetoric and start being widely created and adopted.  One factor limiting the adoption of digital textbooks that I’ve heard from education administrators is the suggestion that it’s too expensive and funding isn’t available.  I fully understand this stance, but there are creative ways to finance them (and save money in the end).  For example:

• Find a way to lump the total costs for five year’s worth of textbook funds into one year (I suppose this is buying on credit). 
• With those funds, purchase the digital device along with digital textbooks.
• Pay back dues to the “textbook fund” on an annual basis. 
• Repeat the cycle.

Creative financing may get mobile devices in the hands of students, but I think the biggest detractor right now is the low volume of digital textbooks available.  When these become abundant, I expect more districts to develop innovative funding mechanisms.

Do you have any thoughts you’d like to share?  Feel free to comment below, on the K12 Mobile Facebook Page, or in the K12 Mobile Learning Community.

This post’s featured image is from the video featured on Inkling.com

Page 2 of 3 | Previous page | Next page