“While daunting, I think a full shift is really possible with commitment and focus,” said Geoff Fletcher, SETDA’s deputy executive director. “The rest of our culture is there in our daily lives…and it’s time for students’ lives in school to be similar to their lives outside of school.”
Utah school technology leaders implemented a statewide digital science textbook initiative using open educational resources (OER) from the CK12 Foundation and other vetted digital resources.
Supported by a grant from the Hewlett Foundation and in partnership with Brigham Young University’s David Wiley, Utah education leaders aimed to create a flexible resource that was cost-effective and specific to the state’s needs and standards.
“It can be challenging to find texts that address the specific topics we say need to be addressed, in a comprehensive fashion, without bringing in a huge amount of materials that can be expensive,” said Sarah Reeves Young, Utah science Specialist with the state’s education department.
Using OER means that community members and parents can access or use the science texts as well, eliminating the need to order costly extra textbooks to have on hand for such situations.
“It sets the stage to support change based on innovation in science and education—no one wants to have the textbook in their classroom that says Pluto is a planet,” Young said, adding that changing state standards also presents a problem when it comes to traditional textbooks. “One of the biggest push-backs from folks in our classrooms and community is that when standards change, how does that impact them in terms of their resources? If they’re committed to a textbook…they’re looking at five to eight years [before] being able to really address those changes.”
School leaders held a two-day workshop to develop the statewide digital textbooks, established common understandings about what OER, state science standards, what purpose the standards serve, and what the role of the textbook is in science courses.
Then, workshop leaders broke attendees into standards-based teams to create standards drafts, and at least two educators were part of every standards-based writing team. Attendees reviewed the documents on the second day of the workshop.
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