A digital book in every student’s hands in the next five years.
That’s the goal federal officials set out last month, just weeks after Apple announced plans to partner with publishers to offer titles for under $15 and provide a free application that makes it easy for anyone with a Mac to create a digital book.
For some in the education field, the announcements signaled a new chapter in the evolution of technology in the classroom and a shift in the nation’s $7 billion-plus textbook market.
From Julian to Coronado to Lakeside, school districts around the region are joining others in the state and country in putting high-tech tools in the hands of students to use educational apps and electronic books to augment and even replace traditional textbooks.
The devices vary — some are buying or renting iPads while others are choosing Android tablets or netbooks. But educators agree that the education experience will look very different in the near future as technology changes the way students learn and teachers teach.
Even though iPads are expensive and most school districts are strapped for cash, some districts in the region have been acquiring the devices for students, often using proceeds from voter-approved bond measures.
Cathedral Catholic High School this fall will put iPads in the hands of its 1,700 students and 110 teachers and staff, charging parents a $350 technology fee to cover the expense. The Encinitas Union School District has bought about 1,200 of the devices and next fall will buy another 2,500 for its third- through sixth-graders, using bond funds.
The biggest roll out by far will be done by the San Diego Unified School District, which announced late Monday it will be purchasing close to 20,000 iPads for its fifth- and eighth- grade classes and select high school subjects this spring.
Some district teachers already have proposed using Apple’s free application to create their own interactive digital textbooks. Darryl LaGace, San Diego’s chief information and technology officer, called the application “a game changer.”
“You have somebody who no longer needs to be an expert in programming being able to assemble content in a rich multimedia experience for kids and organize it in a way that a teacher would,” he said.
Early electronic textbooks were simply PDF versions of the printed page but the offerings that get educators most excited are those that are interactive and include such things as embedded videos, audio clips, photo galleries and animation. School officials say they hope Apple’s foray into textbooks means that publishers will produce more electronic educational titles in the near future.
“They are holding onto a dying industry and I think they are not helping us go any faster as a result of that,” LaGace said. “We need to be working with them. They need to be working with the state. All players need to be involved here to push this evolution.”
As Jeffrey Felix, superintendent of the Coronado Union School District put it, “The Apple thing is going to goose it.”
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Schools get in touch with digital books