Riverside in the Future

I had the pleasure of attending a meeting in LA hosted by the Secretary of Education, Bonnie Reiss, earlier this week, along with Tracy Arner. We were there along with major publishers, representatives from selected technology companies, and representatives from LA Unified, Long Beach Unified, and Fresno Unified. The topic of the meeting was Digital Textbooks and how we in California will handle that matter in the future as we progress and face the new instructional challenges of our time. The discussion seemed particularly relevant given the ongoing development/distribution of new delivery commercial mechanisms (e.g., Kindle, iPad, Nook, iPhone, etc.).
The issue of digital texts is really expanding (in the meeting and beyond) to utilization of "interactive “textbooks” and instructional materials. The first generation of materials had a “2D” look (e.g., pdf documents) and replicated textbooks online rather than being “hardcopy.” This discussion and its results begins to look more like a diversity of electronic options that would include: narrative/text, audio podcasts, video representations (like You Tube or Teacher Tube), along with possible feedback options. This “3D” approach also provides for the text itself to be enhanced – much like you might currently find with Wikipedia (i.e., keywords hyperlinked to additional explanation). All in all, this is a much different experience for students and teachers. The point is that this type of reality is more than just possible, it is happening – and not just limited to California.

The reason we were invited to the meeting was due to the great work of many of our teachers and support staff that are actually implementing these solutions in our classrooms this past year. That effort will expand to an even greater degree in the coming year with the additional outside financial and computer support provided to Riverside USD. All of this will provide a much more exciting and engaging future for our students.