Digital Content Learning Management Systems

c e n t e r f o r d i g i ta l e d u c at i o n s
Special Report
Issue 4
Digital Content & Learning Management Platforms
from the publisher
n our final Special Report of 2010, we delve into the critically important world of digital content. The definition of what constitutes digital content has ballooned inspired by innovative technologies and stretched to include resources that benefit reading learners, lecture learners, auditory learners and visual learners. Its a far cry from what digital content meant only a few years ago providing content in a PDF or supplemental material on a CD-ROM. Digital content today can fully engage students while saving millions of dollars and thats only the beginning. This expansion of digital content is more important than ever before as lawmakers across the country are debating legislation that will affect the use of e-books and other digital content, and ultimately the path of U.S. education. Its clear that students educational experiences are changing in remarkable and exciting ways and were delighted to shed more light on this conversation through research and commentary in our Special Report. Were also excited to bring you a snapshot of whats happening in the growing world of learning management systems and investigate the different options school leaders have to more effectively manage and leverage increasing amounts of diverse information. Please also see our accompanying Funding Report at www.convergemag.com for updates on legislation and for resources on acquiring the necessary dollars to jumpstart your own school or districts digital content initiatives and LMS implementations. We hope you enjoy reading this Special Report as much as we did creating it. Be sure to keep a lookout for our first report in 2011, where we focus on Digital Teaching!
lassroom textbooks may soon be retired to museum displays. Sixty years from now a young person going through the American History Museum will find a U.S. History textbook in the past technologies section. Placed next to button hooks, typewriters and buggy whips, the textbook could prompt the incredulous question, Is that how granddad learned about American History? This could someday be a reality as increasing numbers of educators replace the class textbook with technology-driven alternatives based upon digital content that can better engage students and offer more meaningful learning experiences. The textbook isnt necessarily bad or ineffective, and it can certainly have its benefits. It provides vetted course content, content sequencing and supplemental materials. It offers teachers sample quizzes, guided discussion topics and packaged homework assignments for students. However, times have changed and a new set of realities is shifting the textbooks role as content king. Textbooks are expensive, inflexible and heavy. They can limit learning as they are less than dynamic and they fall short of inspiring stimuli-driven students. Modern education environments require a new model that engages students who are technologically savvy and who expect interactive experiences and desire to learn collaboratively. The Internet, inexpensive personal technology devices and the plethora of mass-produced multi-media content enable that alternative model. In short, the textbook cant compete with customized content tailored to individual student needs. To supplant the textbooks organizational function, the learning management system (LMS) has evolved to manage digital content. The LMS organizes content and provides access for students so that enriched content delivered in exciting ways is the driving force for textbook retirement. In this Special Report we investigate various aspects of this digital content revolution, including what is available and why schools are moving toward it, and some of the issues and concerns education stakeholders might have with this new learning model.
Leilani Cauthen Publisher, Converge Special Reports Converge/Center for Digital Education
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D i g i t a l C o n t e n t & L e a r n i n g M a n a g e m e n t S y s t e ms
John Halpin Vice President, Strategy and Programs Center for Digital Education
table of contents
Introduction
Teaching that utilizes digital content is how we will fulfill the promise of 21st-century learning. Digital content offers the flexibility to make learning studentcentered and a lifelong endeavor that can instantly deliver consistent and engaging learning experiences. Digital content is malleable, enabling teachers and students to more easily consume, manipulate and leverage information to address specific learning objectives and to better match individual learning modalities. This Special Report discusses how digital content is transforming the way students consume information as well as how teachers prepare lessons, engage students and assess student achievement. It addresses the reasons why textbooks are taking a backseat as the primary content medium and explores how educational institutions are investigating ways in which they can benefit from these developments, including the ability to share digital content and to create their own so they can lower costs and keep content fresh. Just as digital content is transforming the classroom environment, it is also causing content providers to look at different ways to produce and market their educational content. Flat text and pictures are pass and are being replaced with video objects embedded in online resources. Even when standard textbooks are digitized onto DVDs, they are embedded with online URLs and MPEG files. These embedded rich-media objects demonstrate rather than simply talk about the topic at hand. Professors and teachers at all levels are posting lectures via lecture-capture technologies that allow students 24/7 access to class experiences. Likewise, as high-definition and multi-media objects replace flat text, content providers are developing new delivery models, pricing models and software and hardware partnerships to compete in this post-textbook environment. This evolution is providing more options for schools while helping to control costs for institutions as well as for students. The tried and true textbook does provide the useful function of managing and assembling information for students. As textbooks recede, an alternative must be found to replace this traditional model. What is evolving is the learning management system (LMS). The LMS brings a classrooms digital resources together for students and provides for a simplified content management
Introduction............................................................ 3 The Digital Content Transformation A Tale of Two Texts.................................. 4 Accessibility, Affordability and Choice . in Higher Education. ............................................... 5 Why the Drive to Digital Content?..................... 7 Policy and Leadership Support........................... 7 Barriers to Adoption............................................... 8 Teacher Training and Support. .............................. 9 Industry Support and Barriers............................. 10 Funding for Purchase and Refresh.................. 10 General Best Practices........................................ 11 Every Time We Make a Tool, the Tool . Remakes Us: Two Different Views..................... 12 Knowing Digital Content is Effective.............. 12 Digital Learning Libraries.................................... 13 Gaming and Virtual Realities.............................. 13 Digital Textbook Options and Copyright Issues.................................................. 13 Learning Management Systems............ 15 How are We Getting There?. ............................... 15 What are the Needs?............................................ 18 Higher Education................................................. 19 K-12 ........................................................................ 19 What are the Options?......................................... 20 Professional Development................................. 21 Future of Digital Content. .................... 21 Glossary................................................................. 22
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resource for the teacher. Additionally, an LMS provides teachers with a simple place to post resources as well as to track how students utilize those resources. Students can use the LMS as their single portal from which to pull resources, organize their learning efforts and gauge their learning progress. As with all areas of digital content, multiple iterations of an LMS can be found on campuses. They take differing approaches as to scope, delivery models and perspective on content management. We will investigate this LMS phenomenon in the latter portion of this paper.
The Digital Content Transformation A Tale of Two Texts

We are on the verge of revolution in the delivery of educational materials in K-12 and higher education. It is a revolution that brings to mind Charles Dickens classic quote from A Tale of Two Cities, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of reason, it was the age of foolishness. Digital content delivery promises more effective, cheaper and more tailored educational materials. It promises better education in our future. But to meet those promises, it needs to overcome the digital divide, quality of content issues, security and safety concerns, and the long reach of copyright laws. The process of transformation can be chaotic and, for some, outright disorienting. The digital content transformation forces us to confront a fundamental question, Which is better print or digital? In considering the answer to this question, we must explore what students, instructors, schools and school districts need to improve the performance of our educational system, and we must examine what is most cost-effective, feasible and legal. Around the country, waves of education leaders and classroom teachers are convinced that digital is the way to go. The digital content transformation encompasses major changes in both the fundamental nature of educational materials and the medium through which those materials are delivered. For hundreds of years, educational materials have mostly been static text with pictures printed on paper and in books. The digital transformation brings us an interactive world of electronic text, active Web links, audio, graphics and video. Digital educational materials are active and alive. The delivery medium is also changing from textbooks to desktop computers, laptops, tablets, netbooks, interactive whiteboards and all manners of mobile, handheld devices (the pros and cons of these digital classroom devices are covered in the Q2 Converge Special Report on Classroom Technologies). It is difficult to give a particularly useful definition of digital content. In the education context, digital content refers to any and all materials or programs stored on an electronic or digital medium that can be transmitted or used by computers and over networks and the Internet. While accurate, this definition is too broad to be very useful for policy-makers and educators as a practical matter. It is a definition that misses the point. Unfortunately, any attempt to narrow this definition to something more concrete and meaningful results in it being under-inclusive because the digital world is
This Special Report will investigate

how digital content is transforming the way students consume information as well as how teachers prepare lessons, engage students and assess student achievement.
evolving so rapidly. For example, two years ago, we might have defined digital content as meaning content delivered over the Internet. But that definition is too narrow today since there has been an explosion in communications technologies and digital delivery platforms. Instead of trying to define it precisely, a better approach is to provide examples of digital content and how such content differs from traditional, print-based educational materials. Digital content is different in how it is stored, how it may be transmitted or copied, and what it can do. Traditional educational materials are stored on paper in textbooks, on graphs and charts, on maps that can be attached to the classroom wall, on records and tapes, and on videotape and film. In other words, traditional educational materials are stored on various physical mediums. Digital content, by contrast, is stored in electronic or digital form on any of the scores of digital memory technologies that now exist, from hard drives to flash drives. And because of the power of networks and the Internet, digital content can be stored anywhere in the virtual universe. Three decades ago, it really wasnt feasible to make cheap copies of educational materials embodied in books, records, pictures, maps and movies. One had to buy the materials in whatever physical form they existed. Copying became easier as photocopying and videotaping technologies rapidly matured. But with the advent of the Internet and modern telecommunications technologies, all of these educational materials can now be transmitted and copied around the globe essentially without significant cost or delay. The powers of Web 2.0 solutions, such as blogs, wikis, mashups and social networking applications, are built around the concept of mass sharing and authoring of information. With the practical barriers to transmittal and copying virtually eliminated, legal issues related to such copying become much more important. As for what digital materials can do, we are certainly not limited to static presentations of information. In the digital world, content can be active and interactive. Content can be linked to other materials on
the Internet in a way that permits students to explore. And content can demand responses and answers from the student to promote timely self-assessment and immediate feedback. Digital content solutions can be as simple as providing existing textbook material in PDF format for use on convenient and less expensive laptops, netbooks, ebooks or e-pads. Thats a good first step in using digital content, but its only a first step. Students expect more than glorified PDFs. There is plenty more that can be done. A more robust digital content deployment can involve using learning management systems to monitor individual student progress as the student moves through complete digital curricula based on materials drawn from online sources, including digital learning libraries. In the remainder of this Special Report, we will explore the current boundaries of the evolving digital content transformation that is occurring in K-12 and higher education.
Accessibility, Affordability and Choice in Higher Education

As early as 2007, the California State University System comprised of 22 campuses created its Digital Marketplace, which emphasized the following values: accessibility, affordability and choice. The digital marketplace is this [golden] opportunity for the university press to re-emerge where faculty can
Our college is now discussing various options for course texts that provide students with choices given their financial resources and learning styles. Our college offers a variety of courses from face-to-face, hybrid and full online courses, and we want students to have similar options with texts.
Dr. Kaye Bragg, Acting Business Dean, California State University, Dominguez Hills
offer high-quality materials, not withstanding a monetary value and the institution can now author those materials and sell it at much lower cost. People are more empowered 20 years ago I could not publish my own book, but today, I can self publish. Technology has put a new tool in the facultys hands, says Gerry Hanley, senior director of CSUs Academic Technology Services Department. The Digital Marketplaces success lies in the hands of faculty who can organize their selected resources and place them in an LMS. Types of materials include syllabi, tutorials, simulations, animations, lectures, presentations, library books, textbooks, e-books, e-journals, exams, quizzes, learning assignments, reference materials, image collections, online courses, training and workshop materials and other digital libraries. New search capabilities ensure faculty and students are able to locate materials quickly in the system. Students looking to purchase materials are given more options than ever before with greater flexibility. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the CSU Digital Marketplace has created data resources for evaluating effectiveness and relating content-related learning activities to outcomes. Dr. Kirti Celly, professor of Management and Marketing at CSU Dominguez Hills, is participating in the program by offering students in her Principles of Marketing course the option of purchasing the ordinary textbook, an e-book version of the textbook,
or a custom-created e-book that reorders the material to match Dr. Cellys syllabus, all in an effort to help determine what students find most helpful. Several sections will have the option of using only online digital content, other sections will access only the physical text and the remainder will use both. Over the years, Dr. Celly has seen students become more accepting of paying for digital materials. Gone are the days when students bought one copy and tried to make copies for their friends, or bought one copy and printed out the entire set of materials. Now, students can only print certain sections of the content, and it is only made available for a certain amount of time. She likens the new digital course texts model to a Costco approach where students are assured that their purchase price is lower than what other retailers offer. In her course, the traditional textbook can cost as much as $190. The e-book comes in at about half that amount, and the custom version of select chapters in the particular order she wants is coming in at about $10 more than the e-book. As the coordinator of the core course in marketing, she has chosen the text and materials for all eight sections of the course at her campus. In the course where students had the option of digital content in the form of the e-book, customized e-book or traditional text, almost all of the students chose the custom e-book even with the price $10 higher than the regular e-book.
Teachers are incorporating many interactive websites and software programs to enhance their lessons and engage todays student.
Dawn Brinson, Interim Director of Technology, New Hanover County Public Schools
Why the Drive to Digital Content?

The primary driver for this transformation is the challenge that global competitiveness in the 21st century presents to our educational system. To be prepared to meet the challenge of global competitiveness, our students need to be well-versed in sciences, mathematics and humanities. While the world around us has been rapidly transforming itself through information and digital technologies, and industry after industry have remade themselves with technologies, we still educate our children using a centuries-old model of educational content delivery and curriculum presentation. Our students, who are early adopters of new technologies, are also driving the transformation. The proliferation of inexpensive, digitally based consumer products means our youth are much more tech-savvy than ever before. Digital content is second nature, and students are calling for easier access to increased information and choices in content. No longer satisfied with a static textbook bought at a premium price from their college bookstore, they also want access to lower-cost materials.
The Ease of an E-reader

E-readers are becoming increasingly popular. Students can manage their digital content in one computer application, including electronic textbooks, class materials, and notes, as well as complementary content, and reference materials. Students also have the ability to highlight and take notes or tag content.
Policy and Leadership Support

In the writing of this report, we canvassed dozens of strategic players in the realm of digital content. One theme became clear transforming our educational system from textbook publishing to digital content delivery requires strong, sustained leadership. The good news is that given strong backing from top leaders of an organization, digital content development can easily gain organizational support and momentum. Leadership is taking shape at the national level. Early in 2010, the U.S. Department of Education
released its National Educational Technology Plan, which is focused on digital content development. Its seven action steps are a must-read for state and local educational leaders. Other national groups, such as the Digital Learning Council, are providing additional support and leadership. Headed by former governors Jeb Bush from Florida and Bob Wise from West Virginia, and supported by more than 50 key movers and shakers from multiple streams of public and private influence, the Digital Learning Council hopes to shape the future of digital education. Areas of interest for the newly developed council include online and virtual schools; personalized learning; blended learning; digital content; online and mobile social networks; and classroom technology. They are also focused on ensuring equity, security and privacy; and promoting parental choice, among other topics. The final
We have to teach our kids how to be good learners so they can dynamically change with how the content and the application of content changes over time.
Scott Parks, Superintendent, Howe Public Schools
materials. There is no question that delivering educational materials through digital media represents a major cost savings for students. Thats good politics as well as good policy. The bill was referred earlier this year to the House Education Committee.
National Education Technology Plan

1) Strengthen Leadership 2) Consider Innovative Budgeting 3) Improve Teacher Training 4) Support E-Learning and Virtual Schools 5) Encourage Broadband Access 6) Move Toward Digital Content 7) Integrate Data Systems
Barriers to Adoption
There are of course some barriers to adoption. After all, digital content development represents a transformational change in the creation of educational materials and their presentation. For many teachers and administrators, embracing this transformation can be challenging. The key to rapid adoption is to put resources and effort into easing implementation for teachers and staff and clearly explaining the benefits of digital content development to them and their students. If they dont understand the benefits of the technology, or they think those benefits are outweighed by the costs of the transformation, the adoption will fail. Even if the policy support and leadership is there to push digital content forward, some instructors at the K-12 level and professors at the community college and university level may struggle with questions of pedagogical approach. For example, a math instructor with years of experience managing a classroom in one particular way students come in with their homework, we go over either the odds or evens, they ask for help, and we continue with the days topic may have trouble enthusiastically embracing highly interactive digital content, at least without a lot of coaching and assistance. In his groundbreaking publication, Prensky coined the terms digital native and digital immigrants to describe the generational gap in technology adoption. Teachers of today have the capacity to learn all of the
recommendations of the Digital Learning Council will be the focus of a nationwide campaign to urge adoption of the policy principles by states, track states progress and encourage best practices. State leaders can support the digital content transformation in any number of ways. One of the most direct is to establish an e-book program that requires publishers to make their content available in digital form. In Ohio, for example, a proposed bill calls for textbooks to have an e-book counterpart within two years. The bill, called the Textbook Affordability Act, would require bookstores to post wholesale prices of texts and provide other cost-saving mechanisms for students in relation to their educational
We provide a series of three webinars each week designed to provide instruction in the integration of technology in the classroom. Each of the webinars is copied and stored in an electronic learning community where the teachers can review or view webinars they missed.
Michael Pitroff, Chief Information Technology Officer, Baltimore City Public Schools
new technologies, but their students grew up with it, creating a disparity. Digital immigrants need to see that math content brought to life by interactive websites can create excitement and spur interest. When the curriculum solutions include digital content that mirrors the look of traditional websites, digital immigrants will instantly recognize it.
Teacher Training and Support

Teachers have so many more opportunities than ever before to personally shape learning materials. But those opportunities may not be discovered and leveraged without comprehensive professional development. Teachers will need new professional development programs to familiarize them with the variety of content delivery devices that are now available as well as to help them develop and use digital content, utilize search engines efficiently, find open source content, and ensure fair use of copyrighted materials. Handling the sheer volume of unstructured digital content can be daunting. Consider the simple problem of quickly finding a small clip in a large video program. In the classroom, every minute counts. There really isnt time to waste searching through lengthy videos. Fortunately, there are several solutions on the horizon that incorporate better search technologies into video and audio segments. With advanced speech to text capabilities, video and audio are now searchable using smarter technology that goes beyond the moving cursor at the bottom of the media viewer. Us-
ers can see where a search term was voiced within the full text combined with time markers. The faster the instructor can find the exact place in the clip, the more effective they are and the more meaningful the content becomes. But this type of teacher adaptation is going to require sustained professional development programs. A good word of caution comes from Gary Allen, the director of Educational Technology for Antelope Valley School District, who explains that the interactive whiteboard is cool looking but dusty you have to go beyond Powerpoint. Without the necessary professional development, as well as the IT support to back the technology, interactive whiteboards and other great technology investments will not give back their real value. Social networking sites are a growing resource for digital content as solution providers have multiple links to additional content embedded on their pages. These sites also serve to connect digital content user communities and can serve as a good resource for teachers new to the digital content field. Parents must also not be forgotten. Students may be aware of the ever-changing learning opportunities made available by the Web, but we need to remember that parents are one generation behind. The old school way of doing things one textbook per class per student is changing. Districts and teachers need to make sure that parents are
Giving credit where credit is due

Even when using open source materials, the interests of the author, as well as the authoring community, should be respected. Creative Commons recommends the following: 1. Provide original source information. 2. Show respect for the original work. 3. Preserve public domain marks and notices. 4. Protect the reputation of authors and providers. 5. Contribute discoveries back. 6. Share knowledge. 7. Maximize a works potential. 8. Support efforts to enrich the public domain.
well underway, and with the commercial success of electronic book readers, the publishing industry is already fully committed to a digital future. In essence, the publishers dont have much of a choice. The information and communication technology industries are leading a global consumer revolution, and we are speeding headlong into a digital future where technologies will provide a medium for cost-effective digital content delivery. A much more complex issue is whether teachers will still be required to accept entire digital textbooks or curricula associated with one publisher and at one price, or whether they will have the flexibility to pull a little from here and a little from there, to build upon the work of others, and to piece together the best teaching materials for the class. This gets into the issue of copyrighted materials, fair use of copyright materials and the use of public domain content. These can be complex legal issues which, if not resolved properly, can become a barrier to widespread adoption. Fortunately, the Internet has spawned a vibrant open source community that places high value on collaborative authorship and sharing consistent with applicable laws of copyright and licensing. Groups such as Creative Commons help bridge the gap between authorship, sharing, remixing and reuse, providing a clear pathway to the broadest possible utilization of digital content.
Funding for Purchase and Refresh

informed and supportive. Likewise, adult learners in higher education need technology skill updates for the same reason. The Converge Q4 Funding Report will cover the potential for funding streams more in depth, but we can provide at least a starting point here for funding opportunities. Federal funding programs are, of course, a good source for technology dollars, so long as the focus is on achieving specific educational objectives. Federal stimulus dollars may be available if they are connected to qualifying Title I schools, Title II-D and IDEA. Although Race to the Top (RTTT) has gone through two rounds this year, there are strong indications that the race is not completely over. The National Education Technology Plan suggests a variety of innovative budgeting practices to make the most of scarce state and local resources and to ease the transition from textbooks to digital content.
Industry Support and Barriers

The publishing industry is rapidly changing before our eyes. A decade ago, we might have counted on textbook publishers to be a major barrier to the digital content transformation. Their investment in publishing equipment and capital was seriously at risk, and digital sales presented to textbook publishers the same sort of economic threat as online music presents to the music industry. But the transformation is already
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Suggestions include systematic restructuring of budgets to generate efficiencies, savings and reallocation within budget cycles (e.g., reallocations from textbooks, traditional instructional supplies, and space and computer labs, to allocations for digital content delivery in the classroom), reducing upfront expenditures by leasing equipment on a 3-5 year refresh cycle, and creating a technology innovation fund available across budget years to support strategic investments. In terms of grant programs, successful government grantees know that it is the language and communication themes developed in the application which sells the story. Funds for Title I schools may be determined by a systematic formula, but it is often the grant writers gift of prose that greatly impacts the bottom line. Several themes have proven again and again to be the golden egg when applying for funding: Students first, educators second Long-term benefits beyond the life of the grant Professional development that is sustainable with extended learning opportunities Demonstrating data-driven decision-making Working what works in K-12 and higher education research Strong evaluative components with measurable objectives and milestones Backwards mapping the grant writing timeline Above all, knowing the schedules of those people who need to sign off on the grant up to the last hour of the last day it is due
General Best Practices

Introducing a program of digital content transformation into a school or school district can be a daunting challenge, but there are best practices to help lead the way through the transformation. A clearly articulated vision of success from top leaders in the organization is paramount. Key stakeholder groups can brainstorm blueprints as a pre-deliverable activity that can then be commented on after the first 100 days. Marking key outcomes and learning milestones on a publicly accessible calendar will ensure all participants know what is expected and when. Track with intensity early and late adopters. Sales
101 will teach you to figure out why late adopters were late and incorporate that in the institutional story or you will be facing the same obstacle for the next technological adoption. Involve as many of the employees across divisions and departments as possible to ensure adequate voice. Know your labor and union issues associated with the new technology earlier rather than later. Many school districts and universities are proactive by bringing on union representation and key academic senate leaders to the review table of potential vendors. Best practices also require good digital content but how do schools and institutions get there? For school districts, one clear benefit of using published texts has been the clearly established approval process from the top down. From the state down to the board of education and curriculum directors, there is a system of checks and balances for stamps of approval. When it comes to technology, we are sometimes fond of thinking that more bandwidth, more networks and more CPU cycles equal greater quality. More is better. But that equation doesnt necessarily hold true with digital content. Quality and value to students also depends upon delivering quality content that is aligned with classroom objectives as well as local, state or national standards. Best practice starts with good content that is tailored to a students needs.
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The first thing to keep in mind is that copyright protection is all around us. It is pervasive. It is in almost everything and everywhere on the Internet. The moment any work is created it is protectable and potentially copyrighted. Step one is to understand it is all around us. Step two is that it is hard to know for any good law-abiding citizen whether a work is protected. You dont know who put it up on the Internet and if they cleared the copyright or are the copyright owner.
Professor Oren Bracha, University of Texas at Austin, School of Law
technologies, but she recognizes that teaching styles and philosophies need to change to get the most out of the new environment. According to Professor Zorn, we need to unlearn emotional habits that are grounded in central widespread myths about online education. First myth, that the best online learning environments are ones that replicate the in-class experience; and second myth, that faculty members are experts who can best fulfill their role by a stand and delivery approach. Professor Zorn argues that professors in an online learning environment need to recognize that their role can change to be more of a facilitator, coach and mentor to students who can use the new technologies to go far beyond the content that would be presented in a more traditional methodology.
Knowing Digital Content is effective

Online learning and distance education have had to face this issue head on over the past few years, spawning new services that review and certify digital content for compliance with applicable standards. Working with individual courses, schools, districts and institutions at the community college and university level the business of quality becomes a key consideration. When deans and K-12 curriculum directors stand in front of their respective governing bodies to pitch digital content, knowing that the course materials are independently certified for compliance with applicable standards makes a difference. The National Online Resource Consortium (NORC), a nonprofit organization, performs an equivalent function with courses contributed by developers from leading academic institutions across the United States. Because these are open source materials, the NORC stamp assures instructors, as well as individual users, that all courses have been reviewed to ensure they meet standards of scholarship and instructional value. Ultimately, digital content materials should be subject to the same rigorous assessment and quality standards that apply to other educational content. For some, the attractiveness of using already-vetted academic publishers and known content providers outweighs the lure of the open source market. School boards in particular appreciate the strength of their respective states recognized list of approved
Every time we make a tool, the tool remakes us: two different views
New tools and new technologies always bring out competing visions of value, the value of the way things are currently done and the value of the way things could be done with the new tool. Digital content technologies are no different. We present two differing views. An outspoken critic of over reliance on technology in higher education, CSU Fresnos English Professor Howard Hendrix is concerned about teaching to the tech. In distance education, he argues, courses and course content are built around particular technologies, and the technologies promote a plug and chug model of education. Professor Hendrix also raises concerns about who owns digital content authored by university professors the university, which provides the materials used to author and deliver digital content, or the professor, who provides the intellectual creativity? Conversely, Professor Diane Zorn of York University, Toronto, has fully embraced distance and digital
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vendors in this area as it is far easier to work with approved content in hand than with online content that still needs to be approved. Each state is currently approving online materials at a separate pace. As more trust in digital content builds, it will become easier to rely upon open source as well as more digitized content.
Digital Learning Libraries

With digital content being generated at a breakneck pace, the rush is now on to produce digital learning libraries (DLL) at the K-12 and higher education levels where media can be accessed by grade and subject level with state and national standards alignment. In the 1800s and 1900s, the community public school was envisioned as a building that guaranteed free access to education. Similarly, a key aspect of the DLL is to provide free access to educational materials. But unlike a building, which is one size for all in the community, institutions using DLLs are able to customize their digital content and provide individual users with interactive materials that respond to their needs. And the building and the classroom may no longer be as central to educational delivery. The states of Wyoming and Pennsylvania are leading the way in this area. Their successful launches are based on quality text content from their state universities combined with quality video and audio content from local public broadcasting stations (PBS). Especially attractive to teachers are the digestible smaller segments of content versus the 30-60 minute PBS original programming time periods. Teachers are able to trust the produced content knowing that the material is coming from well-respected public entities. With the advent of more and more digital materials, issues of trust, safety, appropriateness and security are always top of mind. Districts can also partner with private commercial entities known for quality programming in the education and media business who can assure educators that their content is relevant with high-quality, ageappropriate media images. Not to be outshined by cable offerings, almost all major academic publishing houses have ramped up their digital content offerings to be competitive in this emerging market.
Gaming and Virtual Realities

Ask any K-12 student what is the most influential movie in the past three years using computers, and you will hear a shout out to Avatar. For most of us, the term Avatar conjures up an image of blue people with elfin ears, but in the technological world the term has much greater depth. What parents may not know is how avatars in virtual worlds and 3-D simulations are now influencing educational technology publishers to capture student attention. Taking the cue from early roleplaying adventure games such as Dungeons and Dragons, modern online gaming includes avatars with distinct personalities and personal and work histories that may shadow the users own. Imagine a scientific learning world in which a young budding scientist in the 9th grade has embodied an avatar reminiscent of Einstein, wandering the streets of Munich as a patent clerk, interacting with other students as he or she thinks through his or her early notions of relativity. Science education has just moved from the printed page to the very active virtual world of Internet gaming. Ignoring the positive influence of gaming is a mistake for K-12 and higher education.
Digital Textbook Options and Copyright Issues

Digital content development raises difficult questions about how copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property rights govern authoring, transmittal and
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use. No university president or superintendent wants to receive a call from their legal counsel concerning infringements or misappropriations because a professor or teacher, taking a very broad view of an educational authors rights, inappropriately took some text or image off the Internet. Unfortunately, the risk of inappropriate copying and use is high because it can be very difficult to determine whether digital content is protected or not. On the Internet, for example, works can be copied, published, multiplied, and within seconds, transmitted around the globe in different formats. How do you know whether the text or photo or video that you want to include in your curricular materials is protected?
Be In the Know About Copyright Laws

United States Copyright Office www.copyright.gov Official Summary of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 from the U.S. Copyright Office: http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf Official Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act of 2002 full text: www.copyright.gov/legislation/pl107-273.html#13301 The TEACH Act of 2002 provides for the use of copyrighted works by accredited nonprofit educational institutions in distance education. www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/copyright/teachact/faq.cfm
Creating, working with and using digital content brings authorship questions to the forefront. How do I know if this image is copyrighted? As a general rule, it is unlawful to copy, distribute or adapt a copyrighted work without the copyright owners permission. These are very broad rights intended to protect the original authors intellectual property interests for a lengthy period of time. After the statutory time period for copyright has expired, a work enters the public domain and may be freely copied by anyone. In addition, there is a narrow, technical exception known as fair use which protects insubstantial, non-commercial uses of copyrighted materials. Schools can often walk a fine line in this area, claiming that educational purposes are a protected fair use. At the same time, K-12 and higher educational markets are big business and for that reason, large scale republication of textbooks would not be fair use, according to Professor Oren Bracha of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law. With fair use, it is all a matter of degree. The mashup or remix of works that have been altered by combining, adding and subtracting parts and pixels create complex questions about the legality of derivative works. The law protects the original authors right to make derivative works. For the classroom teacher, the creativity and collaborative potential of this type of interactive authoring is attractive. For the district general counsel, the legal issues can be worrisome. One of the benefits of digital learning libraries or materials available from services such as Creative Commons is that the intellectual property issues have been more clearly resolved in favor of broad use. The same can be said for the whole open source movement beginning to take hold in the education marketplace. To reduce the risk of teachers inadvertently violating copyrights or other intellectual property rights, it is important to cover these subjects in professional development courses and activities. This is a complex area of law; teachers and professors will need guidance in this area to avoid getting themselves and their schools into trouble. In the next section, learning management systems which provide the much-needed delivery model for digital content are covered more in depth.
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The learning management system enables project-based learning. The calendar, discussion boards, e-mail, and grouping tool inside the LMS make the logistics and management of science projects, social studies projects and others easier for the teacher to control and assess. It also allows the teacher an opportunity to explain to students and parents about the connections between the standards being studied and the project requirements.
Bailey Mitchell, Chief Technology and Information Officer, Forsyth County School District
Learning Management Systems

As mentioned in the introduction, the learning management system (LMS) is what makes widescale use of digital content possible. To the student, it is the course portal and content organizer. An LMS provides pathways and tools to direct students toward resources including basic content, enrichment opportunities and assessments. For the teacher, it is a convenient spot to populate digital material for students. In a purely digital curriculum, it is the organizing tool for the course or even for an entire student body. The LMS not only accumulates all materials, but provides scope and sequencing that properly paces the student throughout the course. It also empowers teachers to be creative and more inclusive with all sorts of supplemental materials as the modern LMS can accommodate objects from all versions of media, including audio files, visual files, live and interactive sessions as well as asynchronous messaging sessions involving video clips made by faculty, experts or student peers. It is in sessions like this that a learning management system can offer collaborative experiences for peers.
The LMS is becoming the primary interface for digital learning and is literally the face of the institution for those students who engage in online learning. As a result, an effective LMS must integrate with other specialized campus tools, including systems that are involved with content management, resource control, assessments and student support. It must be flexible and capable of addressing mobile learning, and as a mission-critical tool, it must be robust and always available. Addressing all of these criteria is an evolutionary process and very few schools can claim they are all the way there. (Look to the sidebar Learning Support Systems for a partial list of integrated systems.)
How Are We Getting There?

The learning management system is evolving and various companies, philosophies and processes are at play. Some enterprise resource planning companies are beginning to add the LMS functionality as an adjunct to their general ERP offering. They are taking an approach that since they are the primary management software solution on a campus or in the district, then they are in the best position to provide a 360-degree view of all activities on campus including the learning platform. Other companies that provide student information systems are expanding their offerings to incorporate some, if not most, of key LMS components. These
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Accessing digital content from various technologies provides students and teachers options and capabilities that a traditional textbook lacks. See the different options below and how each can uniquely benefit digital content delivery.
the E-pads transform t by fully education environmen nt through utilizing digital conte and video. Web, graphics, text
With their low price point, netbooks help ensure elementary students have access to digital content.
Digital Content
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The
Advantage
ess to Students gain acc nally found information traditio er price in textbooks at a low nient and in a more conve ader. format with an e-re
Mobility matters: s digital Students can acces ith a content on the go w smart phone..
Digital content spurs classroom collaboration through an interactive whiteboard.
No more bulky backpacks! Digital content can be accessed through the traditional desktop, which every campus has.
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Learning Support Systems

As learning management systems become the portal for learning, they must integrate with other systems on campus. Although these functionalities could be housed within the LMS, many are quite specialized and would require their own system architecture. In this case the LMS must provide seamless integration. Here is a partial list of those systems: Learning Management Platform a software application that manages educational systems containing digital content such as curriculum objects, reference materials, online resources, multi-media objects and various course administrative systems. Learning Management System a software application that administers, delivers and reports on courseware content to support classroom, online and blended learning activities. Media Management System a software application that inventories, manages access to and provides reporting on the use of multi-media, files and content. Student Information System a software application that manages student data including assessments, student schedules, student attendance and other student-related data. Attendance System a software application that tracks time spent in class or on class activities. Grading System a software system that tracks student learning performance. Data Warehouse System a software application that stores, manages and secures campus instructional information and student performance data. Longitudinal Data System a software application that tracks student performance individually and collectively across a number of schools or departments over many years.
companies have the view that since their systems are designed around the student it is the natural place to offer pertinent student-related data and access to resources. Still other companies believe the LMS is so unique and critical to the core purpose of educational institutions that it must be designed from the ground up to optimize LMS functions. These solution providers take digital content as the core organizing principal around their solutions and dont attempt to perform all of the storage and management tasks within the LMS, instead creating an open platform from which various specialized sub-systems can be integrated. This approach attempts to take advantage of various best-of-breed solutions as well as incumbent campus systems while providing a flexible, scalable and easily usable learning platform for students and faculty. If these were not enough, there is yet another approach. For those campuses that are on a tight budget, building or buying a turn-key LMS is not in the cards. They feel they must roll out their own if they are to get something going. These institutions begin with the concept of a learning management system as a repository and facilitator for learning objects exchange and then build their own platforms using readily available file sharing software solutions. These practitioners either write their own applications or work in consortium with other like-minded institutions to share applications in order to build economically. The core software platform for this approach could be shrinkwrapped or open sourced. Likewise, so could the specialized applications running on this platform.
What are the Needs?

If one were to do an Internet search for a list of learning management system companies, the results would fill over 12 pages. However, this staggering number of companies could be easily whittled down into three main categories: those who provide solutions for business training (the most prevalent), those who provide solutions for higher education institutions and those who offer solutions for K-12 school districts. Because colleges, universities and K-12 school districts all have unique needs, their LMS solutions must accommodate them. Lets address these differences.
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Higher Education
Colleges and universities need access to an array of static and interactive resources that could be instructorspecific. These digital resources often contain highly interactive and rich media that might require special handling, and campus IT professionals might want to customize applications to meet unique institutional needs. Instructors must have simple access to the system so they can easily add resources or modify courseware to address changing circumstances. Faculty members also want to assess student utilization and to engage students directly through the system. Ultimately, institutions would like the platform to provide predictive alerts that could help students stay on a positive learning track. For instance, the system could track the students current assessment data and match it to that students utilization of resources and to historical data from past student achievements to predict the students success rate. The system would then notify the student that his or her profile offers only an X percent chance of passing the course, but if he or she were to redo specific tasks satisfactorily it would improve his or her chances to Y percent. Peer participation in course development can be yet another role the LMS can play for higher education. A well-designed LMS can allow for ongoing review and encourage collaboration in that process. Additionally, it can offer a vehicle for student input into the course assessment and improvement process.
K-12
K-12 school districts have been late-comers to the LMS table. Some have tried earlier learning management systems, but have not been completely happy with the results. The primary reason for those earlier disappointments was that learning management systems were originally designed to address higher education needs. For K-12 districts, the LMS must not only provide digital course materials, it must ensure these are properly presented to meet specific curriculum guidelines. These proscribed guidelines could originate from either state or district entities and could involve usability, privacy or even age-appropriate concerns. Additionally, the LMS must adapt to
various school-specific issues that could involve computer access limitations and bandwidth restrictions. The LMS must also tie tightly into the longitudinal data system, student information systems and other administrative systems so timely student data can be available to district and instructional decision-makers. These issues are not likely to impact a college, but are quite real in a K-12 environment. If schools dont implement an LMS, can they provide a platform for digital content? The answer is yes. Many innovative instructors and teachers arent waiting for an institutional solution. Some may have an institutional solution but prefer to go it their own way, using off-the-shelf Web 2.0 tools to perform digital content functions. Although blogs, Facebook, Google docs and YouTube provide a convenient organizing platform, they also could present problems for an institution. Educational technology is complex and needs special tools to manage it well. Open access Web 2.0 tools dont provide the management and support rigor most institutions require and they place a burden on the instructor to fill in the missing gaps for students as well as to manage reporting requirements to the institution. This burden on faculty is not sustainable and is not consistent across the campus. Furthermore, a tracking mechanism is not available for faculty to see how students are using these resources or to track that
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What are the options?
LMS Feature and Function Linkages

Course organizer for: Digital content Activities Access portal Assessment portal to: Organize assessments Deliver assessments Track and report assessments Communication facilitator for: Teacher Student Parent Quality control checkpoint for: Content Standards Rubrics Skills Professional development in: Content Assessments Certifications Talent management
usage to assignments. Ultimately, the LMS should become the productivity and guidance system so faculty can focus on higher-order learning skills. Open access Web 2.0 tools place added burdens on students as well. Web 2.0 platforms are not transparent nor are they consistent for all classes. They require students to use different URL log-in procedures and unique passwords, and cannot benefit from content interoperability. Web 2.0 tools dont allow the school to monitor activity for regulatory compliances such as FERPA, FISA or CIPA, nor do they protect fair use standards for educational institutions, opening the school up to legal ramifications. Beyond making access to digital resources easier for students, an LMS presents a universal face and becomes part of the institutions brand.
Now that we understand why an LMS is needed, lets see how schools are instituting these LMS solutions on their campuses. Just as there are a number of ways schools look at learning management, there are basically three different approaches to implement an LMS: an institution can buy an LMS fully packaged and supported from a corporate provider; it can build its own and take responsibility for maintaining and enhancing it using open source software or other software solutions; or it can develop and maintain its own LMS in partnership with other schools and communities of interest. Although the market has begun to consolidate, there are still a number of companies from which to choose. A commercial LMS solution can be purchased from over a dozen providers. Most can offer a well-honed system complete with IT support structures and professional development for faculty. They also offer a variety of reporting packages as well as a set of optional enhancement modules to address integration with other systems. Commercial learning management systems can be purchased in a number of ways, including outright as a premise-based solution residing in the institutions data center and maintained by the institution, or they could be subscribed to as a service whereby the provider hosts and manages the LMS as a cloud offering and prices it as a service based upon usage. Institutional leaders must decide if they are willing to treat the LMS as a capital expense or an operational expense as well as whether they must have direct control or if they can be comfortable having an outside entity manage it. Open source or homegrown solutions are the second alternative. They can offer greater control if not lower overall costs. When discussing the true costs of open source software, there are a few things to consider. The acquisition may be cheap, but the installation, maintenance and training can be quite expensive. Clearly those institutions that choose to establish their LMS in this manner do so because start-up costs might be less, but the reason they keep these homegrown systems is the desire to have direct control. They relish the ability to customize their applications to meet campus needs and appreciate the ability to set priorities. They also
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like the flexibility to create solutions and reports that meet their unique needs. Generally speaking, only the larger institutions and districts choose to go this route. To be successful it takes skilled resources and budgeting not available to smaller entities. Playing somewhere in between is the third option, which combines the ability to utilize an established platform and applications while maintaining local control and flexibility. This approach usually involves an institution or district implementing an open source LMS platform to which they add specific application modules. These modules can be created internally, purchased from a third-party provider or shared from a community of similarly positioned institutions. Those applications that are shared are critical to long-term success. It is through pooling efforts to develop new applications that institutions can keep costs down while driving the development of new applications to address future needs.
Future of Digital Content

In a growing and constantly evolving digital landscape, a well-constructed learning management system can add stability and direction to the learning environment. A robust LMS pulls digital content together from disparate systems and sources to provide students a congruent and secure learning platform. Just as important, it can provide an empowering course management tool for instructional staff. This means that the LMS must link seamlessly to multi-media objects as well as provide good reporting diagnostics, preferably through a single log-on to access all resources. An LMS that encompasses these capabilities will ensure acceptance to transitions and also improve the chances that the institution will attain the benefits it desires. So what does the future hold for digital content? The education community will continue to see increasing variations in how educational content is delivered, consumed and viewed over the next several years. Digital content that was once supplemental will take center stage as education departments across the nation increase the speed with which they approve electronic texts. Professional development will need to keep pace as the fundamental role of the teacher evolves and we will see more workshops on digital content creation and curriculum development. Will the big players of today in the learning management space continue to be at the top or will they have to give way to up and coming competitors? The more established players have an edge in the integration of their digital content with their learning management systems. Seamless sells. At the same time, it seems likely that technology will slowly fade into the background giving more prominence to the actual content. When this happens, the conversation will shift from technology to classroom instruction. Technology agnosticism will be the win-win for the educational market as new educational tools make their way into everyday classroom use.
Professional Development
Critical to proper LMS deployment is a sound professional development program. Teachers and administrators must not only know how to use the system, they must understand how it will empower them to provide more effective lessons for their students and show them where additional resources can be found to enhance their teaching. A strong professional development program should include how teachers can adapt what they are currently doing to encompass digital content through the LMS. This professional development must be ongoing as well as available for just-in-time delivery as needed. Good professional development should also encourage teachers to reach out to peers for both content development collaboration and for personal support. Above all, it should reflect commitment from school leadership that an LMS is an effective solution that will be supported and that the institution is ready to manage this change. Transitions to digital content have traditionally failed because faculty is not fully committed to make the necessary changes, making professional development critical for success. All instructional staff must be engaged and make contributions to improve learning options.
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glossary
CIPA The Childrens Internet Protection Act was signed into law in 2000 and is designed to safeguard children against objectionable and harmful information on the Internet. CSS Content scramble system is an encryption code that most commercial DVDs have embedded in their copyrighted work. Digital Divide The digital divide is the technological equivalent of the achievement gap between those students who have access to digital technology and those that do not. DMCA The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 2010 allows film students or media studies students an exception to movie copyright laws. Other college majors are still governed by copyright laws. FERPA The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act was enacted in 1974 and guarantees students the right to review and inspect their education records, the right to seek to amend education records and the right to have some control over the disclosure of information from those education records. FISA The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 prescribes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance collection of intelligence information. OER Open educational resources are learning materials that are freely available for use, remixing and redistribution. Open Content Open content is work that can be copied and modified without violating copyright law. PDM Public Domain Mark from Creative Commons allows works such as texts or images already in the public domain to be easily recognizable. These works can then be marked and tagged as PDM for searches. See PDM logo below. SIF The Schools Interoperability Framework is a data sharing standard for K-12 institutions used primarily in the United States. SCORM Shareable Content Object Reference Model is the de facto standard to allow digital learning objects to be interoperable with learning management systems.
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scale issue is really the issue. The teacher who can do it all The connect kids with Tokyo, load everyones iPod with content,
run engaging sessions with a whiteboard thats not everywhere. A teacher who could do that had to spend an enormous amount of time behind that one day. The issue, then, is an administrative technology backdrop that allows that sophistication, daily.
Bill Kelly, CEO and Founder, Learning.com
deserve to have content, something that they can own. Students For example, owning a book that they dont have to return. They
can copy, highlight and add notes. Owning content enables them to write, collect and internalize their own thoughts. As we move forward into a digital age, it is imperative that we continue to give students this opportunity with a space or thing that they control and create.
Neeru Khosla, Co-Founder, K-12 Foundation
we have to try to avoid is schools looking at only the What shiny objects, getting caught up in the content or the next device, and not looking at the process of learning. At Dell were very interested in helping them get to the actual process of learning with all of our tools.
Robin Nirken, Strategy and Strategic Alliances Manager, Dell K12
transforming learning management systems from a platform By into a true environment that enables more collaborative online
learning, changing the way content is created, managed and searched, and producing customizable and competency-based digital content that improves teaching and learning experiences, Pearson is partnering with institutions to ensure a bright future for the learners of today and tomorrow.
Don Kilburn, CEO, Pearson Learning Solutions
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cost-effective online options, educators can personalize With learning within an environment tailored to each students level
of preparedness. Innovative curriculum options are flexible enough to either complement or transform traditional classroom practices and achieve dramatic learning outcomes.
Lori Anderson, Director of Marketing, ALEKS Corporation
is committed to our mission of delivering a world-class K12 education to every child by empowering families, teachers and
school administrators with excellent education programs. K12 will continue to leverage our vast experience and expertise on behalf of our customers and passionately work to ensure that every child reaches his or her full potential.
Ron Packard, CEO, K12 Inc.
the return on their existing digital content investments Amplifying is helping districts realistically transform each school into a digitallyfriendly, active learning environment. Systems that can pull together digital content in a flexible, interactive, collaborative solution will have a significant impact on the success of the teacher, student and the entire educational community.
George Gatsis, Vice President of Product Management, Marketing and Development, Follett Software Company
important to note with the question of digital content that Its it isnt any one company thats going to bring it, thats part of what is slightly paralyzing schools today, theres just so many companies in the space. At Dell we make sure to paint a clear picture with expertise.
Robin Nirken, Strategy and Strategic Alliances Manager, Dell K12
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Solution Spotlight: Follett Software Company
Cognite: Providing Interactive Digital Solutions for K-12
he rapid acceleration of technology has transformed the way we run schools and teach students. Teachers and librarians have seen their roles expand in todays digital age. Cognite from Follett Software provides educators with the right platform to expand learning beyond the boundaries of the classroom. Cognite is a digital learning environment that lets educators discover, share and organize learning materials and allows teachers, students and parents to access them and communicate with each other from most Internet-enabled devices. Designed with K-12 educators in mind, Cognite gives them the opportunity to collaborate and share ideas, lesson plans and other teaching aids across schools or districts. It even has mobile phone apps so teachers, parents and students can check messages or stay up to date with students and administrators. Implementing Cognite is simple and hassle-free. You can install it directly onto a school or district server, or it can be hosted in a software-as-a-service model. As more and more digital resources become available, the demand for educators to integrate technology into the classroom has never been higher. Folletts professionals can quickly and easily integrate your schools electronic resources in Cognite.
And Folletts Professional Development courses also assist educators in learning how to use these interactive tools to their advantage, so they can focus more attention on what matters most: students. Cognite is the latest addition to the Follett Software solution suite supporting educators and engaging students in todays digital environment. View our video and learn how Cognite inspires student success and maximizes education resources. www.FollettSoftware.com/Cognite/demo.cfm
Maximize Your Resources

For todays educators, having to work with less is an immense challenge with few viable options. With Cognite, your district or school can streamline digital resources into a single location that can be shared with other teachers and be accessed year after year. This central system can also implement curriculum changes quickly and easily throughout a school or district in very little time.
base product imbedded in Cognite, educators can ensure their curriculum is meeting the state or provincial standard.
Encourage Engagement
If students and parents are engaged, then students are more likely to succeed. Individualized learning is encouraged through the Project Spaces feature. Parents and students have access to your schools library resources 24/7 with Cognite along with your schools other digital resources. Using Cognite, parents can be on the same track as teachers, and together, parents and teachers can encourage a students performance. Through Cognite, communication is easy between teachers, administrators, parents and students with the messaging application. And with Cognites mobile apps, parents, students and teachers can collaborate easily.
Save Time
No more separate make-up work for absent students, because they can access their assignments at home and return homework on time. Teachers can prepare lessons plans and then archive them for future use. Using the Standards data-
Follett Software Company helps todays educators inspire student success with integrated educational technologies. More than half of Americas K-12 school districts rely on Folletts innovative management of educational content and library materials, textbooks, assets, data and other resources. Folletts powerful and proven solutions support staff and engage students in a digitally rich environment that empowers 21st century learning, discovery and collaboration. Learn more at www.FollettSoftware.com or call 800-323-3397.
Solution Spotlight: Samsung
Technology Brings the World to the Classroom

Saving Time, Increasing Accountability
Samsung understands the time crunch and budget challenges involved in procuring innovative educational opportunities for students in todays world. Timesaving technology, such as Samsungs grading solutions, help teachers redirect their time from tedious grading activities to creative curriculum development. Samsungs multifunction devices automate form design, generation and scanning, data export, and results calculations. Teachers can create and print tests and quizzes for their students and then scan them back in for grading and results tabulation, offering administrators quick access to reports on student progress.
wenty-rst-century students arent conned to the four walls of their classrooms or to the pages of their textbooks. Samsung technologies are helping students and teachers bring the world into focus. Students can tour the worlds great art museums, ride aboard the space shuttle or visit an underground cave all from the comfort of their classrooms. Combining technologies such as interactive whiteboards, LCD displays, projectors, notebooks, netbooks and multifunction printers, schools have unprecedented opportunities to expand the scope of their curricula and provide more engaging lessons to students. Samsung can help schools develop and sustain state-of-the-art classrooms and enable a 21st-century education at an appealing total cost of ownership. In addition to the versatility Samsung offers teachers and students, Samsungs Energy Star-compliant and superior EPEAT-certied environmentally aware products can help districts reduce power and maintenance costs, saving thousands of dollars that can be used for other educational purposes. And Samsung technologies can also help teachers spend less time on administrative tasks so they can focus on preparing their students for a bright future.
Innovative Educational Opportunities

With less time spent on administrative tasks and more time devoted to innovative curriculum development, administrators can also provide classroom technology that allows students access to people, places and things that were formerly unattainable through traditional textbook-based education. Samsungs LCD touchscreen displays allow interactive presentations via Microsoft PowerPoint, videos and live webinars using our embedded webcams. Teachers can even add their own written notes to the screen. Providing students with individual Samsung notebooks or netbooks also offers students access to their classroom from any on-campus or off-campus location, giving them an opportunity to connect with classmates, their teachers or students in other locations for shared learning opportunities.
At Samsung we are dedicated to helping children share the wonder of life, learning and our planet. This fall, Samsung is giving public schools nationwide the opportunity to share the wonder of science and math and an opportunity to win a portion of $1 million in technology from Samsung and its partners. Samsung and its partners are inviting educators to apply to participate in their video contest, which will address a key academic challenge in our country of increasing the pursuit of studies in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Together with teachers, we will foster interest in these subjects among students and illustrate the impact their application can have on the environment in their community. Please visit www.samsung.com/solvefortomorrow for more information.
Samsung Electronics vision for the new decade is, Inspire the World, Create the Future. This new vision reects Samsung Electronics commitment to inspiring its communities by leveraging Samsungs three key strengths New Technology, Innovative Products, and Creative Solutions and to promoting new value for Samsungs core networks Industry, Partners, and Employees. Through these efforts, Samsung hopes to contribute to a better world and a richer experience for all.
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Pearson, the global leader in education, education technology and services, provides award-winning digital content and proven online learning solutions for higher education institutions around the world. Pearsons innovative technologies include:
1FBSTPO-FBSOJOH4UVEJP A proven Software-asa-Service-based learning management system, which delivers reliable, secure and continuous 24/7/365 access to students, instructors and administrators. EQUELLA: Our unmatched digital content repository, which revolutionizes the way institutions search, manage and create content online and seamlessly integrates with an institutions learning management system and other content platforms, such as library, CRM and ePortfolio systems. CourseConnect: A library of customizable online courses with recommended course descriptions, syllabi, lessons containing rich media, graphics and interactivities, discussion questions and assessment banks. MyLabsPlus: An enhanced version of the MyLabs and Mastering programs, featuring more robust administrative and reporting tools and enhanced customer support.
Pearson is your full-service partner for successful online programs, digital content and a state-of-theart learning management system. Visit us online at http://www.pearsoncustom.com/online-learning to learn more.
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Solution Spotlight: K12
K12 provides a world-class, comprehensive solution to

online learning.
KIM ROSS, SUPERINTENDENT, HOUSTON (MN) PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Americas most trusted online educator for grades K-12:

Ks mission is to help you strengthen the promise of American education with proven, results-driven online programs. Online learning is increasingly popular with students and school districts, and we offer exible options to address many of your most pressing challenges: From struggling students to advanced learners Credit recovery and dropout prevention Catalog expansion: AP/honors, world languages, electives Retaining/attracting students Overcrowded classrooms Augmenting teaching staff Summer school and much more Were Americas largest provider of online curriculum for K-12. Here are just a few reasons why: Award-winning curriculum Proven results (see documentation on our website) Satisfaction ratings well over 90 percent from parents and teachers Variety and depth, with more than 210 courses Comprehensive services and support, yet each solution is totally customized We can train your teachers, or provide certied, highly qualied instructors Weve delivered more than 2 million courses over the past decade Year after year, virtual schools using the K curriculum outperform other virtual schools on state test results. Studies have shown that students vault ahead in their learning with K. We see the impact of the K12 curriculum, with many students
Ready to partner with you

Rich Course Material
We base our course development on decades of research on how students learn best. Our team includes nearly 200 curriculum developers: teachers, content specialists, mathematicians, scientists, writers, instructional designers, editors, visual designers and audio/video producers. Our interactive content and integrated, hands-on material engages and inspires students. Weve incorporated more than 120,000 multimedia and interactive elements into our curriculum. Courses can include streaming video, virtual eld trips, interactive virtual science labs, real-time group discussions, game simulation and other engaging tools.
jumping a year and a half in one year, says Laura Belnap, online director of Washington County School District in Utah. Meeting the Challenges K helps schools by offering a continuum of fully hosted online education options, including: Supplemental courses Blended online/classroom solutions Complete, turnkey online school programs Each option is offered with as much implementation and management support as you need. We provide educators with best-in-class online curriculum, end-toend services, an impressive track record of success and a passion for crafting inspired, technology-based solutions to t your needs.
How can we partner with you?

For more information, call 1-800-903-5122, e-mail us at partnerships@k12.com, or visit us online at www.k12.com/educators.
Solution Spotlight DELL
Connected Classrooms:
Powering the Entire Learning Experience
Teachers today have to engage students differently than previous generations. Students are immersed in technology in every aspect of their lives, and their education should be no different. We know that no single technology deployment will transform your classrooms. Education in the 21st century requires a technology strategy that enables engagement and connects students with the numerous resources they need to succeed, including parents, teachers, administrators and the surrounding community. And in todays challenged scal environment, you need to do that on a very tight budget. With the right planning, you can accomplish this while reducing your operating costs. Dell has spent 25 years listening to the needs of educators, and weve been there as the demands on the learning environment have evolved. Weve developed the Connected Classroom to meet these needs. The Connected Classroom provides a broad set of tools and services to keep students engaged, help teachers be more interactive, keep parents more informed, and improve the effectiveness and cost-efciency of your technology investment.
In the classroom: Computers equipped with digital content resources, interactive whiteboards, audio systems and student response systems help teachers engage students, gauge their level of understanding and customize the learning environment to student needs. Extending the learning environment: Providing secure access to school networks means kids can gain access to digital content and tools through a variety of devices wherever they are, and parents can access tools and information they need to reinforce learning at home. The infrastructure: A strong infrastructure can support a learning environment rich in digital content and reduce costs. Highly efcient server, storage and virtualization technologies can provide a more adaptive environment and support the technologies necessary to engage todays students. In addition, precongured systems and automated management tools can keep costs down
and reduce demand on technologists time so technology staff can spend more time supporting student learning, and less time supporting the technology itself. Supporting the connected classroom: The key to successfully transforming the teaching and learning environment is in providing teachers with the professional learning they need, so they can integrate technology to perform formative assessments, drive collaboration and enable individualized learning. Dell provides support and training to help teachers integrate technology into their classrooms with ease and ensure technology functions smoothly. Bringing together the resources needed to support a childs education and learning success is what the Connected Classroom is all about. Through industry standards and a modular pay-as-you-go approach, Dell lets you integrate these technologies into existing environments and grow at a pace that ts your budget and resources.
Dell is committed to enabling teachers to more effectively engage students with all types of learning styles and to prepare students to succeed in this digital age. As the top provider of technology to U.S. K12 classrooms, the company uses feedback from educators across the country to design and develop technology offerings like the Dell Connected Classroom, which integrates seamlessly with Dells open, capable and affordable data center technologies. Learn more about Dell and education at www.dell.com/connectedlearning
sponsored by:
Acknowledgments:
John Halpin serves as the Vice President of Strategy and Programs for the Center for Digital Education. He has worked in the public sector information technology market for over 25 years.
Dr. Kari Kelso is a Senior Fellow for the Center for Digital Education. Dr. Kelso knows K-20 education from the inside out, having taught at the university level at three universities and having managed K-12 Assessment, Research and Evaluation Departments for 10 years.
The Center for Digital Education is a national research and advisory institute specializing in K-12 and higher education technology trends, policy and funding. Along with its research services, CDE issues white papers and conducts the annual Digital School Districts and Digital Community Colleges surveys and award programs as well as hosting events across the K-12 and higher education arena. CDE also supports the Converge media platform comprised of the quarterly themed Converge Special Reports, Converge Online, and custom publishing services.
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Digital Content Learning Management Systems

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Digital Content Learning Management Systems

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Digital Content & Learning Management Platforms

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The Digital Content Transformation A Tale of Two Texts

This Special Report will investigate

Accessibility, Affordability and Choice in Higher Education

Why the Drive to Digital Content?

The Ease of an E-reader

Policy and Leadership Support

National Education Technology Plan

Teacher Training and Support

Giving credit where credit is due

Funding for Purchase and Refresh

Industry Support and Barriers

General Best Practices

Knowing Digital Content is effective

Digital Learning Libraries

Gaming and Virtual Realities

Digital Textbook Options and Copyright Issues

Be In the Know About Copyright Laws

Learning Management Systems

How Are We Getting There?

Digital content spurs classroom collaboration through an interactive whiteboard.

Learning Support Systems

What are the Needs?

What are the options?

LMS Feature and Function Linkages

Future of Digital Content

Solution Spotlight: Follett Software Company

Cognite: Providing Interactive Digital Solutions for K-12

Maximize Your Resources

Solution Spotlight: Samsung

Technology Brings the World to the Classroom

Innovative Educational Opportunities

Solution Spotlight: K12

K12 provides a world-class, comprehensive solution to

Americas most trusted online educator for grades K-12:

Ready to partner with you

How can we partner with you?

Solution Spotlight DELL

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