the+Future+of+textbooks


 * What is the Future of Textbooks or as some may indicate 'Beyond the Textbook'.**

There has been great debate on the future of textbooks and with Apple's announcement of iAuthor and release of ibook2, for the ipad there is an ever growing uneasiness regarding the next wave of textbook or digital content releases. This infographic presents a good overview of the debate form textbooks to digital learning content.

What are the **current issues with digital textbooks** and lack of adoption of the textbook.

a) a digital version of the printed book b) a PDF version of the printed book c) high cost ( average $104 at tertiary level) d) high cost of digital version of the same printed textbook e) adding DRM limits use to online viewing only f) can't afford annual subscription model i.e. Apple model for access g) lack of disaggregation - do not want the whole book, just chapters e) subject matter content - according to the author

These are just some of the issues raised in the past few weeks with particular reference to textbooks and pursuance of OER in education.


 * The rise of Digital Learning Content and Fall of the Textbook**

What we have know as the textbook, the most often printed version of learning content that has been often substituted for 'curriculum' is losing its place in classrooms. Due to the prevalence of digital learning content, often in small reusable fragments, we are seeing a shift away form the textbook as curriculum towards using the term 'learning content'. As in textbooks, learning content will likely appear from publishers, OER repositories, websites, institutions and form any other source producing digital content. These will become the building blocks of the curriculum framed by the school or government authority. As more an more quality digital learning content appears, there will be transformation of the learning classrooms and a greater emphasis on learning platforms and curation tools to organize an frame resources into knowledge acquisition. The skills of blending f2f instruction with massive open learning content repositories will be a greater challenge oft education leaders.

Tom Whitby has a great summary of the future textbook or learning content may look like and function:
 * The mechanism will exist on the internet allowing 24/7 access with computer or mobile access.
 * Many forms of content may be included: text, videos, audio, animation, graphs, and diagrams
 * The ability for flexible content will be provided.
 * The teacher will be able to add or subtract material to meet the needs of the students allowing for differentiation.
 * Content will have highlighting and note-taking capability
 * Content will be linked to dictionary and encyclopedia for easy reference.
 * Content will have language translation capability.
 * Content will be linked to other supplemental material for further exploration.
 * Formative assessment will be built into lessons to assess understanding before moving on.
 * There will be a social media component for collaboration and feedback.
 * Students will be able to create content within the mechanism.
 * Student created material will be archived and shared
 * Student created material will be placed in an ePortfolio within the mechanism.

From this list is is clearly to see the differences between textbooks and learning content. The prevalence of tools in the hands of users and access to digital sources makes the movement from textbook to digital content inevitable and thus creating a plethora of new content options for schools, teachers and students themselves. This shift will have more momentum in the years to come.


 * Some new Directions for Publishers**

There has been a new shift in the purchase of digital content in the education sector. What has long been feared is that digital sales will threaten sales of printed textbooks, there is some truth to this as we have been witnessing a slowing or disappearance of the textbooks in the market for some time. Tertiary level institutions and in some case government agencies have clearly stated the inclusion of OER in future learning content, which I have written about here. However the sales of digitized content has not matched the loss of revenue of the printed matter stream. With an increase in for-profit institutions, homeschooling and direct consumers buying digitized content there appears to be an upswing in the use of digital learning content.

It appears that these sectors (non-profit, homeschooling and direct consumer purchases), currently drive 3X - 4X more times the rate of institutional counterparts and this will continue to grow. They appear to have a stronger desire for OER and free learning digitized content, cost effective quality materials, and are moving away from proprietary content as this sector is expected to grow significantly.

For textbook publishers, there must be a shift form printing to another channel for sales and distribution of digitized content. It is not longer sufficient to simply digitize existing restrictive learning materials. The existence of free and Open learning resources forces an new business model - content consumption and content subscription n (2). Content consumption is tied to the publishers ability to wrap services around the learning content package. This will allow educational institutions to purchase and pay for only what is needed to achieve their objectives. The content subscription model is fueled by analytic services that provide more information to institutions on reporting and analytic. The result is that publishers will provide this digital series through controlled direct to institution distribution channels that offset the loss in printed sales, due to used books, OER content, direct to consumer models.


 * Some Trends in Educational Technology**[[image:Chapter1Fi1.jpg width="462" height="273" align="left"]]

In addition to the disappearance of textbooks there are a few other trends in the market that are taking shape; a) the transition from B2B to B2C market channels, the evolution of content subscription models, the prevalence open content and greater number of open online courses. Each of these will develop new market channels for publishers to offset the loss of printed business, but also changes with way learning content will be generated and bundled to the consumers. What has long been the channel in the education business, marketing form publishers directly to institutions we will see a greater shift to learning bundles marketed directly to consumers or direct to institutional groups. This content will be available through tertiary distributors as well as content will be bundles with services, be in smaller fragments than traditional textbooks and be licensed directly to the end users. This creates content subscriptions and personalized learning packages for the students own use. Although much of the material may be free and open their is likely a mix of content through paid subscriptions but moving away from the high prices for textbooks and current e-texts.

Open content is here to stay and the value of open content will grow in the next decade. As more and more learning content becomes open, the growth is in tools that will curate these items into meaningful learning content. This content is reusable and thus can be remixed. It is not about devices, since access will be for all, it comes down to learning content.(5)

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