Industry Summit News

Dont get caught up in the shiny stuff

Mon, 10 May 2010 21:48

Taking full advantage of all of SIIA’s offerings, including those in other SIIA divisions, is a great way to maximize your membership benefits. The Content Division recently held a Brown Bag Lunch event, “Beyond eBooks: eReaders and Information Content Opportunities.” And although the session was not geared towards the education market, there was education industry representation (Kaplan) and discussion on topics that were industry-agnostic.

The link to view the recorded session is now live: http://bit.ly/SIIA_Beyond_eBooks

A main theme was a caution about being too focused on shiny new devices. Focus on your customers. All content providers want to deliver content how and where customers want it. But be careful about generalizations, even within the same market. Folks at Wolters Kluwer STM businesses, for example, discovered that Doctors access content VERY differently than Nurses do. (Doctors = mobile / Nurses = Desktop). Kaplan discovered that students actually like PAPER. Unlike the web where students are a click away from a “garden of temptations,” paper is free of distractions. Spending some time delving deeply into your customer’s habits and needs (Kaplan has several pilots going at once) will prevent development dollars from going into the wrong functionality.

Another recommendation was to be “nimble”. Easier said than done in a world of competing and complex approaches to content delivery. Though bets were on Open Source winning the battle, single standard has a lot to offer. For Educational Publishers, converting legacy content isn’t easy, or cheap. Especially if the same content has to be converted multiple times for different formats. (Hence the allure of standards!). But standards issues aside, certain educational content, unlike text-only content, has elements, like complex graphics or tables, that are not well suited for eReaders or Mobile devices. And educational concepts can’t always be disaggregated into neat $9.99 chunks of information. Developing new content that fully leverages interactive capabilities – let’s not even get into geospatial – has a host of training issues for those well-respected authors.. That stuff can’t just be slapped on at the end of a development process.

All that being said, the world is marching forward. FT and Foursquare announced a deal that will be interesting to watch. HTML5 is replacing flash. Zinio, an eBook and digital magazine platform, was ranked as a number 4 App. But with all the shiny new things swirling around, keep focused on your customer. Good advice for any industry.

The Content Division holds periodic Brown Bag Lunch sessions that are run from 11:30am – 1:30pm Eastern and can be attended virtually or in-person at the McGraw-Hill offices in New York City. A current list of upcoming events http://bit.ly/SIIA_Events for all SIIA Divisions is always available.

Written by Paula Maylahn for SIIA.

Education and Industry Groups Advocate for Technology in ESEA

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:42

Following the introduction of the Obama Administration’s ESEA Blueprint for Reform and with healthcare reform signed into law, the U.S. Congress  has once again turned to reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).  Among the many programmatic and regulatory issues needing to be addressed is the role of technology.  The Obama/Duncan plan is short on details, but raises concerns by ending the Enhancing Education through Technology (EETT) program without an alternative targeted program.

A coalition of 50 education and high-tech organizations supports the Administration’s proposal for infusing technology throughout the ESEA programs, but as part of a two-tiered approach that also includes the Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Act.  The coalition – including Apple, ASCD, Intel, NSBA and NCTM – affirmed: “Many of today’s educational goals and requirements – including both the central tenets of ESEA as well as those set forth in the Obama Administration ESEA Reauthorization Blueprint for Reform – can be most effectively achieved by modernizing our educational practices and system through technology.”

SIIA also recently submitted recommendations to Congress on ESEA addressing several areas: Systemic Transformation from Mass Production to Mass Customization;  Modernize Education Practice Through Technology; Innovation, Public-Private Partnership and Appropriate Federal R&D Role; School Improvement and Low-Performing Students; Teacher Effectiveness and Connectedness; Assessment, Data & Accountability; and High-Tech Workforce Readiness.

SIIA called for ESEA to “drive transformational innovation that reengineers education delivery models [and] Incentivize the shift from a seat-time, assembly-line education model to a more flexible, student-centered outcomes-based model built around individual learning needs and pace, and anytime-anywhere learning [i.e., personalization].”

ESEA was last reauthorized in 2002 through the No Child Left Behind Act.  Congress made a similar attempt in 2007, but policies and politics prevented the House and Senate Committee Chairs from ever formally introducing a bill.  While there appears to be much agreement in principle, including on fixes to the current accountability system, many hurdles exist, and many insiders are suggesting Congress will run out of time in this election year before completing work to update Title I and most other major federal K-12 programs.

U.S. Education Secretary Duncan: “technology enables us to respond as never before”

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:20

Amid the flurry of recent federal policy activity around education and the role of technology, SIIA’s successful 2010 Ed Tech Government Forum seems a distant memory.  A record 100 SIIA members participated in two full days of discussion with national education leaders on topics critical to the education sector. 

2010 Conference Photo Album & Session Summaries 

Among the highlights were U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s first speech focused on technology. 

The Secretary challenged SIIA member publishers and developers of technology-based educational interventions:  “As providers of educational products and services, you have a huge impact on—and share a huge stake in—the success of America’s students. So, I ask you to join the great endeavor to not just reform education but to transform it. I challenge you to put your talent and ingenuity to work to equip 21st century students with 21st century skills.”

And the Secretary laid out the opportunity:  “As research gives us new insights into how today’s students learn, and technology enables us to respond as never before, you can help lead the way in providing a model for 21st century learning.”

The Secretary spoke at a joint forum before members of SIIA and the Association of American Publishers (AAP).  SIIA and AAP issued a joint statement to “support the voluntary Common Core State Standards Initiative for education and its implementation through our members’ development of instructional, curricular, professional development, assessment and other resources, both digital and print, that align to the standards and are necessary for the teaching and learning of those Standards.”            

The Forum also featured visits to 200 Congressional offices to advocate for federal school technology with partners CoSN, ISTE and SETDA representing state and local educators and administrators. 

SIIA members can review summaries of all the conference sessions, including on Race to the Top and i3, Title I and School Improvement, the Obama College Initiatives, ESEA reauthorization, Common Core implementation, and Government OER Initiatives.