The Demand for Digital Content in the 21st Century Classroom

By Randy Wilhelm, CEO & Co-Founder, Thinkronize, Inc.

If Rip van Winkle awoke in the 21st Century after his lengthy slumber, he would be shocked by some of the changes he found in the world. Unfortunately, the classroom would not be one of them. It’s true–the classroom hasn’t changed much from when our grandparents were learning. While other industries have smoothly made the transition to digital content, we’re still using textbooks and blackboards. With initiatives like this AEP forum we are making progress, but are we keeping pace with the rate at which our students’ lives are going digital? Sadly, the answer is no.

Taking the Digital Plunge

By Matt Keller, President, Capstone Press

Capstone Press is a well-known publisher of children’s books for school and public libraries. Specializing in high-interest, non-fiction topics, we have created a very respectable niche in the education market over the last 15 years. Up until now, we have only published paper books and have done very little in ebook or other digital delivery options. For some time we have watched other publishers’ attempts to go digital and felt somewhat smug when their results were less than stellar–those results being sweet vindication for our inertia. However, looking at other industries’ (e.g., music, newspapers) rapid change in business models and the subsequent turmoil it caused made us sit up and take stock of our own situation. Couldn’t that turmoil also happen to us? Will we be the next in line of “where are they now” companies? Urged on by the greatest of motivators–fear–we decided to take action. If your company is now starting to look at digital delivery or is in the early stages, I offer the following points of advice.