U.S. School TextBooks Going Digital

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L.McMaken
2-15-12
Cincinnati, OH

In the first Digital Learning Day, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski launched a new “Digital Play Book“, to help transition schools into utilizing digital books. The Digital Learning Day was an interactive “town hall” meeting held online. The meeting focused on using new digital media in the classroom, how the new interactive media can enhance the learning experience, and how the government, schools and private industry can collaborate to bring about this digital change.

South Korea already has plans implemented that by 2013 all of their schools will use only digital textbooks. Chairman Genachowski stated: “If we want American students to be the best prepared to compete in the 21st century global economy, we can’t allow a majority of our students to miss out on the opportunities of digital textbooks. Today, I want to challenge everyone in the space – companies, government officials, schools and teachers – to do their part to make sure that every student in America has a digital textbook in the next 5 years.”

The Digital Textbook Playbook was designed as a resource to help begin this process. The Digital Learning Day is scheduled to be an annual event, and many more schools, corporations and educators are expected to participate.