By Lindsay Kastner San Antonio Express-News
A survey of educators attending a national conference in San Antonio shows they believe printed textbooks will soon be obsolete. But few feel prepared for a shift to digital learning. Just 19 said their school or district is totally prepared" for the digital age.
San Antonio Independent School District recently rolled out interactive whiteboards for high school math and science classrooms and Alamo Heights ISD offers technology-heavy Inspired Classrooms" in elementary schools where students use computers for many of their assignments.
Marcos Zarola cheif information officer for the San Antonio Independent School District said he would like all the districts students to have handheld devices for lessons Internet access and other educational uses but said the district isnt ready to roll out anything like that just yet.
The last thing wed want is to have this device go out into the hands of the students and have them not be able to to fully utilize it" he said. That would be a waste."
The survey asked educators questions about social networking digital textbooks and district spending on interactive learning methods. Sixty-five percent said they believe textbooks are going away.
We touch a lot of schools on a regular basis and most are not ready" said Eric Loeffel CEO of CompassLearning an Austin-based educational software
company that paid for the survey.
I think that what it says is we need to take a long hard look at how are we going to get ready. But there are some pockets of innovation in America and we need to find them and begin to replicate them."
Some local districts are already experimenting with digital learning tools though traditional textbooks remain the norm.
Debbie Dixon a fifth-grade teacher in one of the Inspired Classrooms said her 27 students tend to spend much of the school day working in small groups on one of the seven laptops sprinkled throughout the room.
Though Dixons students get lots of screen time she doubts traditional textbooks are on the way out.
The school would have to make it something so that all the kids have equal access" she said.
When you have a textbook its something that all kids have and can take home. When you have e-books you run into the problem that you still have kids who dont have computers and you cant deny them" said Dixon.
Loeffel said technology is becoming more affordable and accessible to school districts but that professional development and training remains a
barrier.
The CompassLearning survey questioned about 300 of the several thousand educators attending the conference of the ASCD formerly the Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.
The survey conducted by the PulsePoint Group had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.5 percentage points.
A survey of educators attending a national conference in San Antonio shows they believe printed textbooks will soon be obsolete. But few feel prepared for a shift to digital learning. Just 19 said their school or district is totally prepared" for the digital age.
San Antonio Independent School District recently rolled out interactive whiteboards for high school math and science classrooms and Alamo Heights ISD offers technology-heavy Inspired Classrooms" in elementary schools where students use computers for many of their assignments.
Marcos Zarola cheif information officer for the San Antonio Independent School District said he would like all the districts students to have handheld devices for lessons Internet access and other educational uses but said the district isnt ready to roll out anything like that just yet.
The last thing wed want is to have this device go out into the hands of the students and have them not be able to to fully utilize it" he said. That would be a waste."
The survey asked educators questions about social networking digital textbooks and district spending on interactive learning methods. Sixty-five percent said they believe textbooks are going away.
We touch a lot of schools on a regular basis and most are not ready" said Eric Loeffel CEO of CompassLearning an Austin-based educational software 
barrier.
The CompassLearning survey questioned about 300 of the several thousand educators attending the conference of the ASCD formerly the Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.
The survey conducted by the PulsePoint Group had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.5 percentage points.
