Blogger Ian Quillen provided a very insightful reflection of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announcement, along with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, a resource to guide educators transitioning to electronic resources. The resource is known as “Digital Textbook Playbook”.
Here are a couple quotes from Ian’s blog post (read entire conversation at http://goo.gl/vWoFo
Genachowski also challenged states and educational content suppliers to ensure that all students nationwide have access to digital educational resources within five years, and he announced he will be convening the chiefs of major digital education companies in March to create a plan to meet such a challenge.
The Playbook is organized into four sections that roughly follow the chronological chain of issues schools must address when making a transition from primarily print to mostly digital resources: switching content to digital formats; establishing Internet connectivity throughout the school; establishing Internet connectivity throughout the community the school serves; and tailoring content to meet the capabilities of the particular devices owned or used by students.
In concluding, I ask everyone this question, will this new playbook be the start of educator created and USDE supported open source textbooks that provide differentiated instruction through the use of media and interactive text?