The Transformation of School Textbooks into Digital Educational Media

Abstract

For a long time, educational institutions such as schools defined books as the preferred medium for learning. The article argues that schools, embedded as they are in a societies undergoing a digital change and experiencing concomitant change in the skills and competencies required of their members, bear a responsibility for teaching digital media practices in the classroom. The article focuses on the ‘digital revolution of textbooks’ and how it demands the transformation of former school textbooks into digital educational media. Furthermore, the text pinpoints what is inhibiting this ‘revolution’ by taking a look at the current debate concerning challenges and opportunities of Open Educational Resources (OER). By describing the contemporary trends concerning digital textbooks and OER as well as looking at contemporary pilot projects, which already break new ground for OER production, the article will discuss future challenges for producers, distributors, and users of digital educational media.