Sunday, October 14, 2012

The digital revolution: E-texts gain powerful endorsement - ksssann, All Voices

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is never one to mince word, and a recent appearance at the National Press Club was no exception. “Over the next few years, textbooks should be obsolete,” Duncan said, calling for our nations schools to begin moving from traditional printed texts to digital textbooks ASAP. “The world is changing,” Duncan said. “This has to be where we go as a country.”And the outspoken secretary has some solid data on his side. There is the irrefutable fact that U.S. students are being academically outperformed. In a global economy where all signals point to a pressing need for well-educated, trained workers, this is not good news. Take the example of South Korea. South Korean students consistently top their U.S. counterparts in educational outcomes. While there is no one single factor in the success, South Korea is one of the most ‘wired’ countries in the world and is a leader in embracing digital learning environments. South Korean policymakers have set 2015 as the target date to go fully text-digital. http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/13113565-the-digital-revolution-etexts-gain-powerful-endorsement