I. Introduction

Technology has had an undeniable impact on educational delivery. From kindergarten to university classrooms, educators are increasingly turning to electronic textbooks and digital resources to structure lessons, support learning and deliver information efficiently. But what are e-textbooks? Where have they come from and how are e-textbooks impacting student performance, teaching and school administration.

While MiCTA recognizes that electronic textbooks are common in higher learning, our position focuses on the adoption of e-textbooks in K-12 classrooms.  We believe that the evidence clearly supports both academic and economic justifications for the use of electronic textbooks by K-12 students. We also believe that a substantial body of free, open educational resources (OER) is already available to users. By encouraging K-12 schools, school districts and state Departments of Education to avail themselves of these free resources, the FCC can realize the greatest possible return on its substantial investment in the nation's K-12 technology infrastructure.

Carefully designed electronic textbooks can improve student performance, address thorny access issues associated with print disabilities, and enhance the student's learning experience. Before we examine the case for supporting electronic textbooks in K-12 classrooms, it is important to define key terms, review the history of electronic textbooks in education, examine how these resources are changing the K-12 educational experience and evaluate the impact of e-textbooks on student performance, teaching and school administration.

What is an electronic textbook?

The Virginia Department of Education offers a staged definition of e-textbooks, acknowledging the still-developing concept of an e-textbook.  We use this definition because it distinguishes a true e-textbook from a digital copy of a printed text.

In an October 2011 report (Ross), the Department of Education defines three stages of e-textbook development. The first stage, replication, describes an e-text in its simplest form:

"A digitized version of a printed text that offers few or no modifications to the printed layout but that capitalizes on some functionality inherent to its platform (e.g., hyperlinks, simple annotations, bookmarking)."

The second stage, modification, describes an e-textbook that has evolved to incorporate some strengths of a more comprehensive digital presentation:

"A digital version of information commonly found in a textbook but modified to leverage the benefits of digital media, including dynamic presentation of text and images, hyperlinking, audio, video, and other multimedia."

The third and most evolved stage describes characteristics of an e-text as follows:

"A digital environment with foundational content as a launching pad to promote higher-order skills, metacognition, complex problem solving, communication and collaboration, the creation of student artifacts, and the tracking of student performance data."

The history of the electronic textbook

The origins of the electronic textbooks arguably can be traced back to the 1930's and 40's. While the concept of electronic texts may have been described at that time, the ideas were neither technologically possible nor commercially viable. By the 1960's, electronic texts that operated on both specialized and generic platforms were available in the academic environment, and the term "electronic textbook" was in regular use by the mid-1980's.  By the 1990's, Sony had developed and commercially marketed the Data Discman, a portable device that could display print books stored on CDs.

Further advances in the development of the e-book include the creation and standardization of data formats, such as PDF and EPUB, which allowed the conversion and display of formatted text, and supported the inclusion of hyperlinks, images and other features.

The impact of electronic textbooks

As K-12 educators adopted more advanced educational technologies, the move toward electronic textbooks accelerated.  Today, educators at all levels are adopting electronic textbooks.  A 2013 Course Smart survey[i] of more than 500 undergraduate college students, for example, shows that virtually all survey respondents (99%) carry at least one mobile device, and two-thirds of respondents said that they used electronic textbooks frequently. Nearly 80% of respondents said that they had used at least one electronic textbook.

The survey indicates a remarkable willingness of students to adopt electronic textbooks.  Only 7% of respondents said that they thought that print textbooks would still be the primary textbook medium in ten years, and tellingly, 17% of respondents said they thought that only digital textbooks would be available in 10 years. Clearly, students at the highest levels of educational attainment in the US use, accept, want and expect to use electronic textbooks.

Considering that colleges and universities are educating the nation's newest teachers under these circumstances, it's clear that the widespread adoption of electronic texts at the K-12 level is inevitable. Further, educational policymakers at the highest levels now encourage K-12 educators to adopt electronic textbooks.  In a report co-authored by the Department of Education, former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for electronic textbooks to be in widespread use in K-12 classrooms by 2017.[ii]

Research to support the transition to electronic-textbooks is mixed. Significant evidence suggests that electronic textbooks can be used to make educational resources more available to students with print disabilities. For students without disabilities, some research suggests that carefully crafted electronic resources can improve academic performance among students at all educational classifications. At the same time, other studies suggest that there is no significant difference in student performance among students who use electronic textbooks instead of traditional printed texts.

Despite the mixed research, school districts and state Departments of Education are moving toward the widespread adoption of electronic textbooks. In 2012, for example, the State of Utah announced its plan to develop "open" electronic textbooks in math, language arts and sciences for students at the junior high and high school levels. [iii] The electronic textbooks will be available online at no cost to schools and students, and the texts can be printed locally (if desired) at a cost of about $5 per book.

In 2011, the State of Florida announced similar plans to incorporate electronic textbooks into all of its public school classrooms by 2015.[iv] The Florida plan would phase in digital-only textbooks for the state's high school students first, followed by a phased roll-out to students in lower grades in core subjects like reading, math, language arts, science and history. The State of Florida is moving toward digital textbooks in part to reduce its annual $220 million appropriation for K-12 textbooks.

II. Why many K-12 schools haven't adopted e-textbooks

The adoption of electronic textbooks is not without controversy. While many textbook publishers are moving toward electronic textbooks, many school districts still have not incorporated electronic textbooks meaningfully into their curricula. A number of reasons explain this.

Adoption cycle

While higher education institutions typically leave the choice of textbook materials to their professors, K-12 schools and school districts maintain a much less flexible adoption cycle. Committees, most often operating at the district level, select K-12 textbooks.  Under this approach, the classroom teacher may have little or no input into the text selection process.

The cost of district-wide textbook procurement requires schools to retain printed textbooks for a significant period of time, usually between 5 and 10 years. While newer, more up-to-date textbooks may be readily available from textbook publishers, schools and school districts rarely accelerate their adoption cycle for new curricular materials.

District-wide adoption policies and cycles also require significant planning and preparation time on the part of the classroom teachers to incorporate the new materials into their lesson plans. Simply purchasing a new textbook series is only the first step in the adoption process. Introducing the new materials into the classroom may require months, or even a full school year of teacher preparation.

Device dependence

Electronic textbooks can provide a wealth of educational options, but unlike paper texts, an electronic textbook requires the availability of a device that is capable of displaying textbook materials and accessing interactive materials. While some school districts are moving to a 1:1 mobile device model, many schools can only provide devices in their classrooms.  Students may or may not have access to the electronic textbooks from their own personal computers or mobile devices once they leave the school building.

Interoperability with existing digital resources

K-12 school districts approach technology with remarkably different strategies. While some school districts use technology in very limited ways, other districts have forged ahead with a range of school-wide and district-wide electronic learning initiatives. To ensure the best return on their technology spending, school district may need to incorporate electronic learning resources into existing course management or learning management systems. This process can be fraught with technological challenges that frustrate even the most savvy information support personnel.

Availability of electronic textbooks and state funding requirements

Not all K-12 textbooks are available in digital format, though textbook publishers are working to make more of their catalogs available electronically. In 2012, less than one-third of K-12 textbooks currently in print were available in electronic format. Further, some electronic book formats are not universally available, which means that some electronic textbooks may be available only for specific electronic readers. [v]

In certain states, availability isn't the only question. Legislative and administrative rules may require modification before schools and school districts can purchase electronic texts and learning resources with state funds in place of traditional printed materials.[vi] As of 2012, 22 states had authorized the use of electronic textbooks, paid for with state dollars.[vii]

Despite these significant challenges, there are a number of compelling reasons to support the adoption of electronic textbooks at the K-12 level.

III. E-textbooks should be promoted and adopted at the K-12 level

K-12 schools are turning to e-textbooks to manage the challenges that dominate today's K-12 educational landscape. In many cases, electronic textbooks provide both technical and practical ways to acquire curricular materials that address the needs of all students.

Differentiation among learners

Electronic textbooks provide a unique opportunity for schools and school districts to meet the differentiated educational needs of their students.  A growing body of evidence suggests that electronic textbooks, particularly those that are customized to meet individual student needs, provide unprecedented access to educational materials for students with documented print disabilities. Traditional print materials may be insufficient to meet the needs of visually impaired students, and those with documented learning disabilities.

Additionally, research suggests that carefully developed electronic textbooks may help young children, both with and without special educational needs, acquire early literacy and emergent reading skills more quickly and easily than print textbooks do. Researchers caution that this success requires the design of early literacy electronic textbooks to focus narrowly on the mastery of core phonemic skills without depending upon low-value distractions to keep the emergent reader engaged.

MiCTA has recently funded the acquisition of 30 tablet devices for the Calumet School District 132 in Calumet, IL, for the purpose of supporting the acquisition of emergent reading and math skills among the district's first-grade students.  The tablet program, which will be overseen by Dr. Lawrence Cox, aims to evaluate the impact of 1:1 tablet-support in the district's first-grade reading and math curricula, as well as the durability of the devices when used in lower elementary applications.

Student success with differentiated instruction is not reserved only for students with learning challenges. According to the US Department of Education and studies conducted by the National Training and Simulation Association, tablet-based learners reduced the time required to achieve learning objectives by 30%-80%, compared to peers who approached learning objectives using traditional print resources.[viii]

Additionally, a 2012 study conducted by the Los Angeles Unified School District showed that students enrolled in an Algebra 1 course who used tablet-based learning materials scored 20% higher on standardized math tests than students who used traditional print textbooks.

Rising costs and decreased state funding

Currently, schools across the United States spend about $5.5 billion on K-12 textbooks each year. With regard to the publishing industry, K-12 textbook publishing is the second most valuable sector in the US, behind trade paperbacks. At the same time, states and school districts are struggling to keep up with the cost of maintaining textbooks for their K-12 student populations.

Each state has its own textbook funding model, however the models may leave all parties in an awkward position. For example, in both 2009 and 2010, the State of Illinois eliminated funding for textbook purchases in an effort to reduce its own budget deficit. In 2010, these cuts amounted to about $40 per pupil. To offset the cost of textbook purchases, districts require families to pay textbook rental fees and registration fees at the beginning of each school year. 

Illinois represents an extreme example; in 2008, more than $200 million in book fees were collected by school districts across the United States. Nearly half of those fees were collected in Illinois alone. In contrast, most families pay about $10 per year to offset the cost of textbook purchases, and only about 15% of school districts in the United States currently charge families any fees for textbooks.[ix]

States and local school districts alike are struggling with the staggering cost of purchasing printed textbooks. On average, a K-12 textbook currently costs about $100.  A comparable electronic text costs about $65. The State of Indiana, like the State of Illinois, asks its families to pay for the cost of K-12 textbooks. Indiana has adopted a textbook rental program, whereby the state's school districts purchase textbooks outright and lease them to families on an annual basis. In this scenario, the cost of the rented textbook is amortized over the course of six years.  The State of Indiana picks up the tab for about 45% of the state's students whose families fall below established income guidelines. [x]

In 2013, the State of Alabama appropriated only enough funds to cover one-third of the cost of new K-12 textbooks. The state adopted a similar approach to textbook funding in 2012. Local school districts must pay the remaining costs out of their own budgets. To cope with the added expense, many school districts have extended the shelf life of their K-12 textbooks to as long as 10 years. [xi]

Currently, the State of California budgets about $55 per student for textbook purchases each year, but the state has issued a moratorium on required textbook adoptions, largely because it plans to introduce new Common Core standards in the near future. Currently, the state adopts K-12 textbooks on an 8-10 year cycle, and state education officials want to align new textbook adoptions with coming Common Core standards. While schools and school districts can still replace textbooks using the old list of previously adopted texts, no new textbooks are being considered at this time. This approach means that the state will not be able to introduce new Common Core textbooks into its classrooms in a timely way, even after the moratorium is lifted in 2015.

The inability of the state's public school districts to adopt new textbooks has, in part, given rise to a robust open educational resources (OER) industry, where textbooks are being developed in an "open-source" fashion,. The texts are freely downloadable and customizable to fit student needs and curricular requirements. Currently, the open educational resources movement has found significant support from The CK-12 Foundation, Curriki, OER Commons, Project Gutenberg, P2PU, HippoCampus and others.

Volunteers are creating and evaluating content, while foundations are paying the real costs of development, alignment with state curriculum standards and distribution of the free textbook materials.  Teachers who select the open materials can pull together their own customized textbooks, rework materials to suit their students' needs and make new materials available to other teachers. 

Electronic textbooks that meet state curricular standards, whether they are produced by recognized educational publishers or created in an open fashion, can help states and their school districts address the immediate issue of presenting current materials in their classrooms.  Additionally, electronic textbook adoption can also significantly reduce the cost of acquiring new texts for K-12 classrooms, making it easier for states and school districts to introduce new textbooks when the need arises.

E-textbooks provide up-to-date factual material

Studies conducted by textbook publishers indicate that it takes a publisher approximately the same time and effort to produce an electronic textbook as it does to produce a print textbook, even though the work involved in creating each product differs.  Time becomes a factor during the distribution phase. Publishers can distribute updates and corrections to electronic textbooks more quickly. Updates to print textbooks require reprinting and distribution, a step that most school districts forego to maintain their fixed adoption cycle.  The electronic textbook, therefore, becomes a living document that can retain its relevance through a long adoption cycle.

E-textbooks can be customized to meet curriculum standards

Each state has its own curricular standards. While the Common Core attempts to address some of this, states will always maintain the right to add or eliminate curricular requirements according to their own needs.  Electronic textbooks support this approach to public education, because they can be customized easily to meet the needs of each individual state curriculum. Based on the results of annual standardized tests, states can quickly strengthen their curricula in areas where their students are not performing well; revise curriculum to remain current and add new requirements as their individual circumstances dictate. The modular nature of electronic textbooks also enables states to retain the portions of a common curriculum when desired.

A growing number of e-textbooks are becoming available

Although the US K-12 textbook market has an annual estimated worth of more than $5.5 billion, publishers have been slow to enter the digital publishing arena.  In part, this reluctance to enter the digital publishing marketplace stems from the long adoption cycle that schools use to evaluate new curricular materials, and from the lack of a coherent, supportive information technology infrastructure.  This support includes mobile device availability, reliable access to the Internet, updated technology policies and practices, adequate preparation for classroom teachers and intellectual property rights that accommodate the K-12 classroom environment.[xii]

Despite these challenges, textbook publishers are introducing a larger number of mature electronic textbooks. The move to digital textbooks is being driven in part by students. A recent Book Industry Study Group survey showed a significant increase in the number of higher education students who prefer digital texts to their print counterparts. According to the group's annual survey, in 2012 approximately 40% of students in the survey prefer digital textbooks to print ones. This reflects a 12% shift in preference from 2011.[xiii]  While this survey was limited to higher education students, the trend implies that students at the highest levels of K-12 education are increasingly likely to prefer digital curricular materials.

Students are increasingly acquiring the devices that support mobile learning

The proliferation of competent mobile devices among K-12 students supports the shift to electronic textbooks. Nielsen reported that as of July 2012, nearly 60% of all US children between the ages of 13 and 17 had a dedicated smartphone.  The majority of middle school and high school students have already adopted smartphones and other mobile platforms that will support broad educational objectives.[xiv]

The number of active mobile devices in the United States now exceeds 500,000,000. In the first three months of 2013, US households adopted 18 million new tablets and 9 million new smartphones.  At the same time, the number of actively connected PCs has remained the same. [xv] Further, consumers are becoming more willing to connect tablets to the Internet via cellular networks. According to new NPD Connected Intelligence research, cellular connections for tablets grew 48 percent in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the first quarter of 2012. Currently about 12% of all tablets connect to the Internet via a cellular network.[xvi]

Tablet use on Wi-Fi networks is significant. NPD Connected Intelligence reports that consumers, on average, receive about 10 GB of data per month on tablets connected to Wi-Fi networks. This rate of data consumption is about 2.5 times greater than Wi-Fi data delivered to smartphone devices.[xvii]

The figures show that consumers are expressing a clear preference for mobile devices over traditional desktop computers, and that parents are increasingly willing to equip their teenage children with competent mobile devices that can support electronic textbooks and mobile learning.  This opens an exceptional educational opportunity for children who are still in primary and secondary education settings.

Students can take mobile devices loaded with e-textbooks wherever they go

With competent mobile devices, students can truly participate in the most valuable forms of mobile learning.   When paired with competent mobile devices and robust Internet connectivity, electronic textbooks enable high quality educational experiences everywhere and all the time.  Mobile learning can allow students to take advantage of time at home, while in transit and between extracurricular activities to enjoy beneficial educational experiences, acquire and practice skills, complete homework assignments, evaluate their progress, collaborate with other students and with their teachers, and engage in extended discovery.

Electronic textbooks reduce the number of items a student needs to buy/carry

The issue of carrying textbooks in the K-12 environment is significant.  A 2004 study of recommended K-12 textbooks in California found that while no individual required textbook exceeded the recommended maximum weight for a child at any grade level, the combined weight of four core required textbooks (Social Science, Mathematics, Reading/Language Arts, and Science) exceeded the recommended maximum weight for virtually all students at all grade levels. At the time of the study, the average California first grade student might need to carry 8 lbs of textbooks, while the average California 11^th grade student's combined textbook weight could exceed 20 lbs.

The danger to students isn't simply the result of carrying an overweight backpack. Indeed, only 11% of students who presented with backpack related injuries suffered from injuries incurred while carrying a backpack, according to Consumer Product Safety Commission data. More commonly, students suffered injuries that required medical attention after tripping over a backpack or being hit by one. In a study published in Pediatrics by Wiersema, Wall and Foad, children with backpack injuries presented in the Emergency Room most commonly with head trauma.

In 2012, an estimated 24,300 people in the United States were treated in doctors' offices and emergency rooms for backpack related injuries. Approximately 10,000 of those patients were between the ages of 5 and 18.[xviii]

Electronic textbooks resolve this problem by eliminating the majority of weighty items in a student's backpack, and substituting a 1-2 pound tablet, which is well within the carrying ability of any student at any grade level.

IV. Conclusion

State Departments of Education, school districts and schools should immediately consider the adoption of electronic textbooks and the technological infrastructure required to support them.  Mature electronic textbooks:

§  offer enhanced educational opportunities for children in K-12 schools

§  provide specific and necessary accommodations for special education students

§  promote measurably improved student performance

§  combat the negative effects of extended textbook adoption cycles that some states have turned to as a cost-containment measure

§  reduce the cost associated with textbook adoption

§  support customized curriculum objectives

§  take advantage of the proliferation of mobile devices

§  reduce backpack-related injuries among K-12 students

Some schools have already adopted mobile learning strategies, and e-textbooks are a natural fit. Students are also adopting their own personal technological infrastructure that supports learning-on-the-go. Electronic textbooks are a natural extension of digitized and online educational resources.

E-textbooks reduce the cost of supplying curricular materials and provide a superior learning experience for all students.  Electronic textbooks can be customized to suit the needs and learning styles of individual students and meet the unique curricular objectives of a school, school district or state. In addition, electronic textbooks can be updated quickly, allowing schools to provide the highest quality curricular materials while still achieving cost containment through an extended adoption cycle.

Further, while electronic textbooks take approximately the same amount of time to produce as print textbooks do, electronic textbooks can be distributed faster, easier and at a lower cost than print versions of a text.  Mature electronic textbooks also incorporate a wide variety of resources that can explain and support particular concepts, reduce the time it takes for students to master learning objectives, enhance a student' s understanding of the concept and evaluate student performance.

The body of free open educational resources is substantial and growing. Tens of thousands of free, aligned resources are available to schools, districts, teachers and students at all levels, and many can be customized to suit the individual needs of students, and the curricular goals of the school or school district. The FCC and the US Department of Education should strongly encourage schools that are positioned to adopt electronic resources to take advantage of – and contribute to – the growing body of open educational resources currently available to our nation's students.