Tales from the Front Lines – How the Future Has Already Arrived in Our Schools

By Michael Johnson
Chief Operating Officer, Follett Digital Resources

As I write this article on my laptop, there are hundreds of thousands of students and teachers doing their daily schoolwork on their laptops. The number of laptops being placed in the hands of students, mainly for 24-hour use at home as well as at school, has increased year after year for several years running. While we are still some distance from a 1:1 ratio for all 55 million K-12 students, digital content is one of the fastest growing opportunities in the K-12 community. Beyond the business opportunity, using instructional technology to address the needs of today’s learner and learning environment is our best chance to make a positive impact on educational outcomes.

What follows is a tip of the iceberg view of what is already going on in K-12 schools. Nothing in this article is in the future or in a wait-and-see mode. All of these projects, and many more like them, have been going on for multiple years and across multiple grades and subject areas. Basically, the future many of us have been waiting for has actually been happening for some time now.

Success 2.0: The Publisher’s Role in the 21st Century

By Daniel Caton
President of McGraw-Hill Learning Group

It’s a time of great upheaval in American education. More students than ever from various backgrounds and nationalities are enrolled in our schools. The vibrant, expanding, global economy demands skills and training that the education system doesn’t provide, and many citizens are horrified by how poorly prepared students are for this rapidly changing society. Teachers often are considered not up to the challenge, sparking controversial efforts to hold them to higher and more consistent standards.

I could be referring to today’s educational system, but I’m not. I’m describing the educational landscape of a century ago – the timeframe giving rise to the educational publishing industry and the concept of basal and supplemental materials. My point is to suggest that even as the technology of education has changed, the reasons for our industry’s existence have not.

Even the Longest Journey Begins with One Step

By Charlene F. Gaynor
CEO, The Association of Educational Publishers

We’re embarking on a journey into your future. Where it starts and ends will be different for each of you. Our itinerary is uncertain, but we can promise you this. There’ll be at least one stop outside your comfort zone.

Let’s start with the familiar. Imagine a book. Inside this book are eight different chapters and within those eight chapters, 600 paragraphs. Within each of those paragraphs are hundreds of ideas or “divisions of thought” (a term you’ll hear more of later). In fact, this one book contains, maybe, thousands of divisions of thought. Whoever buys the book pays for 10,000 divisions of thought, even if he only wants 10 of them. What happens, though, if he could buy those ideas one or two at a time? What does this mean for you as a publisher? Do you own an inventory of books or ideas? Are you a publisher or a broker of thoughts?

Welcome to the digital future.