Digital Textbooks for All Students?

Martha sent me a link for an article, Can The Obama Administration’s Five-Year Plan For Digital Learning Work?, that reports the Obama administration is in support of all students using digital textbooks within the next five years.  The challenge was proposed by Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski in an interview with the Associated Press on February 1st. The idea is that digital textbooks provide a way to get updated information to students quicker and the potential of saving money.  Digital textbooks make all kinds of sense for those of us who teach sciences content.  Probably 3/4 of the print textbooks in my home office are out of date. Some of the support for the concept noted in the Associated Press article include:

• The Federal Communications Commission has released a Digital Textbook Playbook to encourage the development and use of digital textbooks for K-12 students
• After the tornado hit in Joplin, Missouri in May 2011, high school kids from Joplin High School and the Franklin Technology Center now use laptops instead of print textbooks
• Digital learning is more advanced in other countries such as South Korea, a country that has worked to develop advanced infrastructure to support online access

This is a hot topic in today's library systems where 90% of the print books are never checked out.  An even more important point is that libraries are liable for having outdated textbooks!  It is clear to me as a member of the our university's library search committee, that the digital medium is changing the face of education and libraries.  The challenge is developing the electronic infrastructure to support the changes.