Last Tuesday the Secretary of Education said
“I think we should be moving from print to digital absolutely as fast as we can over the next couple of years. Textbooks should be obsolete.”
He was clear that he sees the digital transformation in schools as a “critical game changer” for the American education system.
He gave three reasons for the advocating a rapid shift:
At ISTE 2011 in Philadelphia this week we were blessed with gorgeous summer weather, hot but not oppressive days and cool evenings perfect for a city walk. The show was hot too, well attended and and well run. So it may seem like an odd time to declare that this trade show’s days are numbered. Tech shows like ISTE and TCEA are surging in attendance while warhorses like IRA go begging for attendees. Received wisdom is that everything is moving to the tech side.
I’m going out on a limb to argue that the trends of the last 5 years, declining core content shows and strong attendance at pure tech shows, are about to reverse themselves. In the coming years we’ll see a resurgence of IRA, NCTM, and other content shows. ISTE will wither to a hard core platform technology event.
After IRA I noted how tech unfriendly the event was – they have a long way to go in encouraging and recruiting tech solutions. As I strolled the floor at ISTE in Philadelphia this week noticed the flip side of this coin. There was very little in the way of core content solutions that are delivered in genuine transmedia packages. It was ALL technology, PURE technology.
When educators choose new classroom materials their first challenge is to sift through dozens of options and narrow the search down to four to five options. In other words before they say “yes” to one solution they need to find reasons to say “no” to a host of other options.
Prior to Common Core the most significant filter was “alignment to state standards.” If a company couldn’t provide a correlation that showed substantial or complete compliance with a particular state’s requirements it never got past the first meeting. No one really used the correlations once the product was purchased, but it was a useful filter to help narrow the field of choices.
In the last six months I have noticed a significant shift in this process. Most districts now require some flavor of “technology” in any curriculum resource they purchase. Like standards correlations they don’t particularly care what it is – but they won’t consider products that don’t have a technology component.
How do you find a job in education publishing or technology?
Recently I was asked for my thoughts on entering our industry by a mid-twenties alum of my high school. In the course of the conversation I found myself getting re-excited by all the great prospects in our industry. It also spurred me to turn my own experience over and reflect on what worked for me 25 years ago when I was in his shoes.
I’m grateful I was asked to help because it brought my focus back to why we do what we do.
Guest blogger Mike Baum of Sophia Consulting shares his insights on ISTE 2010.
By Mike Baum
In the old Road Runner cartoons, there’s always a point where the slavering coyote, relentlessly and enthusiastically pursuing his dinner, runs off a cliff. But he hangs in mid-air momentarily, falling only when he realizes there’s no longer anything supporting his feet. Walking the floor of ISTE (nee NECC) last week, I thought I heard “beep beep” from time to time.
My take away from the first day of the Association of Education Publisher’s Content in Context Conference (#ciccon): educators have always needed Education Publishers, but they have never particularly wanted them.
What are you doing at your company to remain necessary in the digital age?
EdNet 2009 starts this Sunday in Chicago. This is one of the three most important events of the year* for networking and professional development in the education industry. I’ve been attending since the early 90’s with only a couple of absences.
Nelson Heller, EdNet’s founder, has also been a friend and mentor – as he has so graciously been to many of us across the industry. This year the conference is under MDR‘s aegis – and it will be the same top-notch opportunity to expand your consciousness it has always been
Why is this event important? In a nutshell it is all about conversational efficiency. You can talk to more people about partnerships, recruiting, selling, or just “gettin ta know ya” in a few hours at EdNet than you could in two months on the road.
Are you Twitter curious? For the past few months I’ve been on the fence about Twitter – lurking but minimally engaged. Like all new technologies as people play with it they are discovering what it is best for. Recently I’ve watched as my friend Charlene Blohm has begun leveraging it to help drive her business.
Twitter seems to be following a similar path to other new technologies. The enthusiasm of early adopters misrepresents what the technology is really capable of. Think LaserWriters/Postcript and flyers with 23 different fonts on them (circa 1986) or web pages cluttered with frames (circa 1998). Once the dust settled and a “grammar” of usage emerged we all benefited. But every new technology has to pass through a stage of wild and random experimentation to get there.
Twitter is passing out of this stage right now so it is a good time for the rest of us to engage with it.
Education technology bloggers have been a busy lot with NECC 08, end of school year, and lots of new products to play with. Here are just a smattering of some of my favorite posts from the past few weeks. Enjoy.
John Rice flagged an article showing that putting games in libraries increases reading. This jibes with a presentation I saw last week at Games Learning & Society – a public librarian started doing game nights and they saw their youth circulation double – for BOOKS. This is going to make several people in my house happy – Mrs. Education Business Blog is a middle school librarian and the EBB spawn are avid gamers and readers.
Danah Boyd shares some meaty insights on status and online behavior for teens. The money quote:
In a conversation with Randy Pennington he pointed out that in my post textbooks vs. education technology – clash of paradigms I alluded to the financial paradigms but didn’t address them directly.
Theres more…
The Education Business Blog