Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Most school districts have the technical infrastructure to support the basic digital textbooks of today. But as far as supporting the kinds of textbooks tech-savvy educators would like to see multimedia-rich interactive Web-based materials schools have some serious catching up to do in increasing network speed and connectivity providing professional development for teachers and persuading lawmakers to revisit state textbook-adoption policies.
Moving Ahead in Texas
This school year in the 55000-student Plano Independent School District in Texas English and language arts textbooks for all grade levels are digital says Jim Hirsch the associate superintendent for academic and technological services for the district.
Because the Plano district made technology a priority several years ago teachers have been quick to embrace digital textbooks he says.
Our teachers are still adapting to a different way of providing learning opportunities to our students says Hirsch. But we had the advantage of teachers being comfortable ... already accessing a lot of digital materials so its a very small step forward for them.
The district provides a classroom set of physical textbooks he says but individual textbooks for students are provided either on a CD or through the Web.
Our wireless infrastructure can actually support students bringing their own devices such as laptops and other Web-enabled devices says Hirsch. And to make sure all students can access the materials at home he says the district donates surplus computers to families who cant afford them.
One of the advantages of having students bring their own devices is that theyre already comfortable using them Hirsch points out.
But as more instructional materials are created in a digital format it is important he argues that publishers use open standards rather than proprietary formats and platforms that may not be supported by the wide variety of Web-enabled devices students bring.
Im continually saying you need to produce for the open standard says Hirsch. Dont produce for a closed proprietary standard or you run the risk of creating a digital resource that only a segment of students can access.
Glimpse of the Future
The 10000-student Vail Unified School District in Arizona may offer a glimpse of what the future of textbooks holds for many other districts.
Long ago we actually sort of abandoned the textbook as the source of our scope and sequence for curriculum says Andrew Chlup the director of Beyond Textbooks a districtwide instructional framework that requires teachers to identify resources that correspond with state standards in lieu of a textbook. Sometimes that may be a section of a textbook a resource theyve created or something culled from the Internet he says.
Its allowing people to build an effective curriculum thats interesting and varied without a textbook says Chlup.
The Beyond Textbooks initiative is in its third year in the Vail district he says and about five years went into the development of the curriculum before the program was launched.
To pull it off the district upgraded its computers equipped them with the software they needed to help teachers build the curriculum and collaborate with one another and put LCD projectors audio equipment interactive whiteboards and document cameras in classrooms.
Taking the process one step at a time and including teachers curriculum experts IT staff members and administrators in the conversation was essential says Chlup.
All those folks working together structured the vision and decided how to move forward he says. It does require some flexible leadership and teacher buy-in is the most critical piece.
Another key to the programs success has been the open-source software its built on says Chlup. Although it requires just as much maintenance and upkeep as proprietary platforms open-source software has allowed the Vail district to scale up without breaking the bank.
But although many educators see digital textbooks as inevitable theyre still waiting for textbook policies to catch up.
We suspect that the textbooks in their current form are kind of like the dinosaurs making their last migration across the country says Magneson of Merced County in California. At some point in time the technology will catch up with them and theyll fade out and disappear.
Its just a question of whether or not well see policies change that will create the environment where this technology can flourish.
Beyond Textbooks Charts a Course
Beyond Textbooks an initiative of the Vail Unified School District in Arizona has crafted an instructional framework to move away from traditional textbooks.
- Teachers carefully select essential or power standards from the Arizona academic standards.
- Teachers unwrap the standards to determine big ideas key vocabulary student-friendly language essential questions and performance tasks that prove mastery.
- Teachers add classroom-tested lesson plans supplemental materials and objective accommodations/interventions to the Beyond Textbooks website.
- Teachers sequence the essential standards in a curriculum calendar that is linked to the Beyond Textbooks wiki.
- Teachers create formative assessments that can determine if a student has mastered an objective.
- Teachers download and share curriculum and resources from the Beyond Textbooks website that suit their instructional styles.
- Classroom instruction is more effective because teachers can easily access a variety of materials anytime anywhere.
