Digital textbooks open a new chapter

Recently, I came across this BBC article on education and ICT. In the article, Gary Eason explores South Korea's (SK) announcement that:

South Korea, one of the world's highest-rated education systems, aims to consolidate its position by digitising its entire curriculum.

By 2015, it wants to be able to deliver all its curriculum materials in a digital form through computers. The information that would once have been in paper textbooks will be delivered on screen.

The arguments of the South Korean Minister of Education to support this initiative is that it will allow students in remote rural areas access to more and better information and that "... allow students to leave behind their heavy backpacks and explore the world beyond the classroom".

South Korea however is not a universal example. The penetration of technology and the ICT skills of SK teenagers should make the transition relatively easy, says the Organisation for Economic Co-ordination and Development (OECD).

In the United States of America (USA), the government is also looking at making more and better use of ICT, but not from an educational starting point. For President Barack Obama and his administration ICT could help lessen the burden on a very stretched education budget. Obama's "Digital Promise", announced in September 2011, involves a new national centre to advance technologies that could transform teaching and learning. The USA will first evaluate what works and what doesn't before making major changes.

Eason rightfully asks the question whether more technology also means better results, both for the students and the teaching/learning process. And he points to the fact that the role of teachers in this digitalisation is important. They will require more training on the use of digital learning aids, for themselves and their students as part of the curriculum.

"The sad truth is that students can learn just as badly with a class full of computers, interactive whiteboards and mobile technology as they can with wooden desks and a chalkboard." ICT teacher David Weston, founder of  'Informed Education'.

I agree with Weston that the methodological approach to teaching is what makes the difference and that ICT in itself does not offer an improvement of children's motivation, knowledge or results. In the end, an e-book is a book; the content is what is important, not the carrier. A good book, with an approach that helps children and students to acquire new skills in a meaningful and motivational way is a good tool. Whether on paper or on LCD. 

I do believe that ICT offers new ways of presenting meaningful content in a novel way, but '3-dimensional content' with hyperlinks that lead off in all directions pose a serious challenge for curriculum developers, methodologists, pedagogues and authors alike.