The emergence of digital technologies has majorly changed the trade publishing industry, and is set to shift educational publishing next. Governments are eager to see the implementation of digital platforms in teaching strategies; challenging ‘schools and publishers to make the conversion to digital textbooks within five years’ (Pettigrew, 2012). Thus this is a crucial movement educational publishers have to adopt in order to stay relevant amongst competition, and in the industry.
With its widespread and easily accessible benefits, surely this is perfect for educational publishers, teachers and students alike?
However, this strategy faces challenges; in its over-reliance on teachers to have general knowledge of digital technology, and pressure of keeping up with the constantly changing curriculum (Hall, 2013). Furthermore, ‘creating extra resources [on top of physical textbooks] (and especially interactive and adaptable ones) is very labour-intensive and hence expensive’ (Pettigrew, 2012) so is there really any benefit to the publisher?
Pricing is always going to hinder educational publishing; if students struggle financially to afford textbooks how can we expect them to own tablet devices priced at £59 to £169? With government spending, this is a factor schools are able to overcome by offering rentable E-reading devices – with predictions that ‘nearly a third of all students will have access to a tablet by 2020’ in school (Vaughan, 2013). Though this poses questions about the reliability of tablets in the classroom, due to their proneness to breaking, and distracting habits; ‘“keeping students on target” while they used the iPads’ was an issue for teachers (Bacon, 2013).
Fortunately, it is not just e-textbooks which educational publishers are engaging with; numerous, for instance Pearson, are using HTML5 as learning tools to attract consumers. Their main products ActiveLearn and ActiveTeach are independent learning resources for Key Stage 3, GCSE and A Level Students, giving students information, activities and cross-media resources. The format also allows teachers to follow their students’ progress, and students to annotate the information, combatting findings that 35% of students chose “note-taking ability” as a reason for preferring print (Tan, 2014).
With its widespread and easily accessible benefits, surely this is perfect for educational publishers, teachers and students alike?
However, this strategy faces challenges; in its over-reliance on teachers to have general knowledge of digital technology, and pressure of keeping up with the constantly changing curriculum (Hall, 2013). Furthermore, ‘creating extra resources [on top of physical textbooks] (and especially interactive and adaptable ones) is very labour-intensive and hence expensive’ (Pettigrew, 2012) so is there really any benefit to the publisher?
Pricing is always going to hinder educational publishing; if students struggle financially to afford textbooks how can we expect them to own tablet devices priced at £59 to £169? With government spending, this is a factor schools are able to overcome by offering rentable E-reading devices – with predictions that ‘nearly a third of all students will have access to a tablet by 2020’ in school (Vaughan, 2013). Though this poses questions about the reliability of tablets in the classroom, due to their proneness to breaking, and distracting habits; ‘“keeping students on target” while they used the iPads’ was an issue for teachers (Bacon, 2013).
Fortunately, it is not just e-textbooks which educational publishers are engaging with; numerous, for instance Pearson, are using HTML5 as learning tools to attract consumers. Their main products ActiveLearn and ActiveTeach are independent learning resources for Key Stage 3, GCSE and A Level Students, giving students information, activities and cross-media resources. The format also allows teachers to follow their students’ progress, and students to annotate the information, combatting findings that 35% of students chose “note-taking ability” as a reason for preferring print (Tan, 2014).
Despite the advancements in digital educational publishing, the majority (57%) of students still prefer print resources (Tan, 2014) thus one can draw the conclusion that publishers need to provide both print and digital platforms for learning; perhaps combing the two (even using QR codes). On the whole, as a result of teacher’s inability, student’s preferences, and changing curriculum and device updates, it is clear that digitalisation has many weaknesses to educational publishers.
Word Count: 412
Bibliography:
Bacon, B. 2013. Top 3 Problems with Tablets in the Classroom, Digital Book World [online] Available at: http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/top-3-problems-with-tablets-in-the-classroom/
Hall, F., 2013. The Business of Digital Publishing: An introduction to the digital book and journal industries. Abingdon: Routledge.
Pettigrew, J., 2012. Digital Textbooks challenge from US government, The Bookseller [online] 2 February. Available at: http://www.thebookseller.com/futurebook/digital-textbooks-challenge-us-government
Tan, T., 2014. College Students Still Prefer Print Textbooks, Publishers Weekly [online] 8 July. Available at: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/63225-college-students-prefer-a-mix-of-print-and-digital-textbooks.html
Tivnan, T. et al, 2014. Curriculum Changes a “huge opportunity” for publishers, The Bookseller [online] 1 August. Available at: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/curriculum-changes-huge-opportunity-publishers
Vaughan, R., 2013. Tablets in schools double in one year, tesconnect [online] 23 June. Available at: https://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6339835
Word Count: 412
Bibliography:
Bacon, B. 2013. Top 3 Problems with Tablets in the Classroom, Digital Book World [online] Available at: http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/top-3-problems-with-tablets-in-the-classroom/
Hall, F., 2013. The Business of Digital Publishing: An introduction to the digital book and journal industries. Abingdon: Routledge.
Pettigrew, J., 2012. Digital Textbooks challenge from US government, The Bookseller [online] 2 February. Available at: http://www.thebookseller.com/futurebook/digital-textbooks-challenge-us-government
Tan, T., 2014. College Students Still Prefer Print Textbooks, Publishers Weekly [online] 8 July. Available at: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/63225-college-students-prefer-a-mix-of-print-and-digital-textbooks.html
Tivnan, T. et al, 2014. Curriculum Changes a “huge opportunity” for publishers, The Bookseller [online] 1 August. Available at: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/curriculum-changes-huge-opportunity-publishers
Vaughan, R., 2013. Tablets in schools double in one year, tesconnect [online] 23 June. Available at: https://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6339835
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