Digital Academics

"Allowing students to pursue learning experiences that are relevant to them -- including traditional seat-based environments and digital learning opportunities -- is the best strategy," Haglund said. "The same thing with adults, frankly. I don't want every teacher to be teaching in a virtual environment because not every teacher has the interest or skills to support that type of an instructional environment."

One reason why paper textbooks cost so much is because publishers need to recover their costs of producing new books in the first or second semester, Brady said. That's because the books end up in the used book market after that time, where publishers don't get a cut. And digital textbooks have kept a similar high-priced model, he said, which encourages students to break the encryption on them or stick with paper books because they can sell them back.

And videos, of course, can't be printed.

By using the HTML5 online content language, Brady hopes to give students cheaper instructional books that will give them all their material in one place. And the material will be updated in near real time.

Another aspect of flipped classrooms that the panelists had in common was a desire to personalize and individualize learning for their students.

By using videos, students can then watch the lectures and receive educational content at their own pace

instead of spending an entire class period lecturing, teachers can then spend that time working directly with students—answering questions and facilitating activities.

"It wasn't the music business that was dying," he said. "It was the CD business." Similarly, the textbook isn't necessarily going away, said Bridges, but the form is definitely changing.

"We are already producing online materials that school districts can't even use fully because of the challenges they have [with professional development and infrastructure,]" said McFall. But while schools may not quite be ready to make the transition to fully digital content, the revenue from digital resources grows each year, and currently makes up more than a third of Pearson's sales, said McFall.

Ensuring that teachers are properly trained to use technology resources is fast becoming as big of a budgetary concern as was acquiring the technology in the first place.

Often overlooked however, is that not all teachers are immediately comfortable transitioning to a wired classroom.

We can provide every student in America access to great teachers, but that won’t happen in a traditional classroom (as Public Impact has so clearly spelled out)—it will happen when we leverage talent with technology and blend the best of online and onsite learning.

To power these new models that combine local and national resources, Digital Learning Now calls for educational funding that is weighted, portable, and performance-based.

i-Ready.com from Curriculum Associates, is a great K-8 adaptive assessment with engaging content.

Dreambox.com is a K-3 game-based adaptive math product.

ST Math from MIND Research Institute is a visual game-based approach used with great results in over 1,200 schools; ST Math is now available on iPad. They are launching their Seattle Math Initiative this Wednesday