Texas classrooms moving from text to web

The Texas Education Agency took a significant step toward making Texas a leader

among states moving toward more digital classrooms.

K-12th grade teachers could start using open-source, electronic textbooks as early as Fall

2010, slowly eliminating mass-marketed hardback textbooks from Texas classrooms.

The TEA defines open-source textbooks as interactive, online-electronic textbooks that

are available for students and teachers to download from the Internet free of charge without a

membership or other access charges.

With open-source textbooks, students and teachers can access a variety of applications

for audio, video, images, graphics, text as well as anything else pertaining to or enhancing their

educational experience from any place that has Internet access.

The TEA is currently taking bids for open-source textbooks from various publishers and

online content providers following the TEA Board of Educators’ unanimous decision at their

Nov. 20, board meeting to pass Commissioner Robert Scott’s recommendation to move toward

digital instructional materials. Decisions are expected in the next couple weeks.

TEA educational content meetings have changed dramatically since the agency began

placing bids for online content last week, Anita Givens of the TEA instructional materials

division said.

“Our world has changed,” Givens said. “Such meetings once drew only traditional

publishers, but last week we had inquiries from Apple, Dell and several other digital content

publishers.”
 Representatives from traditional publishing giants McGraw-Hill and Pearson Education,

also included in the bids, declined to comment.

Several other states, including California and Virginia, lightly integrated free, open-

source textbooks in their classrooms earlier this year while keeping traditional hardbacks as their

primary teaching materials. Implementation of digital content in California classrooms has been

a success and the state plans to increase classroom use as well as increase their media libraries

for the future, a spokesperson for Hilary McLean, director of communications for the California

Education Department, said.

Texas State Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, said he wants Texas to take a larger step

by actually purchasing the content.

If Texas owns the open-source content, it can then edit and tailor the software to conform

to the lessons and specific requirements that Texas students are tested on, he said. Hochberg said

other states are putting glorified PDFs of textbooks on the web, where as he plans to make a

variety of multi-media content available to students and teachers that meet Texas’ specific

academic requirements.

“I don’t know of any state that is implementing this the way we plan to,” Hochberg said.

“It’s not just about putting a book online. It’s about using this as a platform for multi-sensory

learning. I believe most of the best things to come from this we haven’t even thought of yet.”

Mike White, an expert analyst and spokesperson for TexasCurriculum.org, agrees with

the benefits but is hesitant to praise the move to digital classrooms and said he believes there are

obvious problems with the new technology.

 “Open-source textbooks require costly resources that not all schools have including

computer equipment, adequate bandwidth and training for teachers and technology support

staff,” White said.

Another problem is that all five million Texas schoolchildren do not have online access at

home and not all districts have the infrastructure to support open-source content, he said.

“How do we guarantee all children will have equal access to these materials, particularly

those disadvantaged children in low-income school districts?” White said.

Hochberg said he acknowledges these concerns as problems that have to be solved, but

said he believes that integration of open-source content can be part of the solution.

The state spent $264 million last year in hardback textbook replacements, which he said

is about normal. Hochberg estimates implementation of open-source textbooks would only cost

the state $20 million.

“If we’re spending upwards to $200 million less each school year on hardbacks, we can

use that money to start programs to make sure every teacher is trained and every student has

Internet access in the classroom and at home,” Rep. Hochberg said. “We want this to be an

educational building tool rather than old textbooks sitting on shelves.”