The Game Plan

Hitting the books … without the books?

Posted by Rebekah Lowe / Thursday, September 29th, 2011

Public schools consider a transition to digital.

Education
Alice Reilly, the coordinator for preK-12 social studies for Fairfax County Public Schools, says digital textbooks can be extremely interactive. They come equipped with features for highlighting, making notes in the margin, pictures that can be clicked on to see a supplementary video and interactive maps, charts and graphs. Additionally, many of them come with online resources for both teachers and students.

Integration
According to Michael Tupper, the director of school administration for Rappahannock County, the school system is in the process of trying to develop a virtual library. However, he says it is sometimes a question of accessibility; not all students have Internet access or multiple computers at home, which would make it difficult for households with more than one child to complete schoolwork.

Health
Reilly says Fairfax County has not encountered any health issues resulting from the use of digital textbooks. On the contrary, many parents Reilly surveyed before the integration frequently mentioned they thought their children would benefit from not having to carry heavy textbooks back and forth to school each day.

Finance
Howard Pressman, a certified financial planner for Egan, Berger & Weiner, comments that digital textbooks would be easier for the publisher to update, thus cutting costs for them. Reilly says that in terms of finances for Fairfax County, it is somewhat of a wash right now. Any savings the school system might make by moving to online and digital resources have to be spent on providing and updating the technology required.

As for the students, both Reilly and Tupper agree that students will not suffer from the change to digital. Just as the public schools provide textbooks for their students now, they will provide the resources necessary for digital texts.

–Alexandra Scarfone

Tags: , , , , ,

Leave a Reply