Two recent events at Stanford University suggest that the day is growing nearer when quality higher education confronts the technological disruptions that have already upended the music and book industries, humbled enterprises from Kodak to the Postal Service (not to mention the newspaper business), and helped destabilize despots across the Middle East.
How My School Is Transitioning to Digital Textbooks: Organizing (Step 1 of 5)
This fall, Burlington High School will transition to a 1:1 school exclusively with the iPad 2. One of the goals of this initiative is to slowly transition curriculum and textbooks to ePub format. ePub file format allows anyone to create a file that is readable on an iOS device or Kindle like a book
I am all for PBL but I think that we need to not only create the opportunities for our students to do this, but for ourselves as well. Again referencing the Wagner book, schools in Singapore are seeing the importance of learning communities that promote active learning:
The future seems both clear and imminent — a future in which students carry course texts and personal media in a "digital backpack" that is light, fun to use, enjoyable for reading, and always connected to information and friends.
Understanding and integrating new literacies related to the production and consumption of digital content has become essential for education in this digital age.