Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Cengage sees digital outpace textbook sales for first time

New milestone marks first time that more digital units are sold than print textbooks

For its fiscal year 2016, Cengage Learning reported that digital unit sales outpaced print textbook sales for the first time. For the 12 months ending March 31, 2016, Cengage Learning activated 3.5 million digital student experiences, up 12 percent from the prior year.

“Fiscal 2016 marks an important milestone for Cengage Learning as we transition from a traditional print publisher to a digital education company,” said Michael Hansen, Chief Executive Officer at Cengage Learning. “Our financial turnaround is well underway, fueled by significant digital growth over the past year. At our core, we are committed to improving the student experience, which has focused and inspired every aspect of our organization.”

MindTap, Cengage Learning’s flagship digital teaching and learning solution, recognized growth in activations of 136 percent for the year. MindTap is the most flexible and innovative platform in the market and learners using the digital courseware are exhibiting increased engagement and better results. Students who spend at least three hours in MindTap each week are twice as likely to get 90% or above on their assignments. MindTap now covers more than 550 courses, or approximately 60 percent of Cengage Learning’s product portfolio.…Read More

OverDrive launches QuickStart eBooks for elementary schools

Service offers teacher-recommended titles with simultaneous access for K-5 students in class, at home and everywhere, both online and offline

OverDrive, an eBook and audiobook platform for schools, wants all kids to become great readers. To promote reading, encourage digital learning and support literacy goals, OverDrive is partnering with award-winning publishers like Dawn Publications, Lerner Publishing Group, Britannica Digital Learning and ABDO.

OverDrive’s K-5 QuickStart offers young readers a premium collection of 200 eBooks, including Read-Alongs such as the Summer Camp Science Mystery Series, The Mallory Series and Noisy Bug Sing-Along, picture books and other titles. These eBooks are instantly available with simultaneous access for every K-5 student in class, at home and everywhere, both online and offline.

K-5 QuickStart is based on OverDrive Read, the browser-based reader used by 34,000 libraries and schools worldwide. Developed especially for the youngest readers, QuickStart eBooks can be opened instantly in the browser with no software or downloads required.…Read More

Amazon wins $30M contract to sell e-books to NYC schools

A big move into education, Amazon edges out OverDrive to capture NYC e-book contract

Amazon.com has won a $30 million contract to sell digital textbooks to New York City’s public schools over the next three years, in a deal that could extend an additional three years and be worth a total $65 million.

Under the terms, Amazon would have the right to sell e-books and other content but not devices like Kindles through an internal marketplace site. The e-books will be readable on e-readers, tablets, smartphones, laptops and other devices.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Panel for Educational Policy approved the three-year contract on Wednesday for the Department of Education, who could spend as much as $4.3 million in the first year of the contract. The deal has the option to be extended an additional two years.…Read More

OverDrive lists the 5 most read digital novel sets in schools

The Book Thief, The Giver among most popular digital novels in schools

eBooks and digital audiobooks have become a vital component to promote reading and support literacy goals in nearly 13,000 schools and districts in 50 countries.

Educators are increasing integration and creative adoption by using popular digital content in a variety of innovative ways, including using digital novel sets for English language arts classes.

One school district which has successfully navigated the digital shift and integrated digital novel sets into their curriculum is Bedford Public Schools (BPS), a public school system in Temperance, Michigan.…Read More

myON adds content from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Four new digital content subscription packages for Pre-K-12 readers now available

digital-contentmyON, a business unit of Capstone, has introduced digital content from global learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) to the myON literacy environment. With the addition of HMH titles, myON continues to expand its collection to encourage reading at all levels spanning all grades, PreK-12.

Through its Publisher Program, myON incorporates titles from leading content providers in the U.S. and abroad, and provides subscription-based access for schools through its cloud-based literacy environment.

With this latest addition of four incredible digital packages from HMH — Picture Books, Award Winners, as well as a Middle and High School package — students can search for books they find interesting and engaging. The Picture Book package features everyone’s favorite monkey, Curious George. Award Winners include The Bronze Bow, The Midwife’s Apprentice, A Single Shard, and Caldecott Medal Winner Golem, along with a host of Newbery Honor books. The Middle and High School packages feature titles from well-known authors such as Eleanor Estes, Glenn Stout, Gary Paulsen, Roland Smith and many more.…Read More

LightSail announces free digital ebook library

Free titles include books from more than 400 publishers

ebook-teachersK-12 literacy solution provider LightSail will offer a free Starter Library for all customers. The Starter Library includes 200 texts spanning elementary, middle, and high school reading levels, and will grow to 350 texts by March, 2015.

Each free text in the Starter Library comes with LightSail’s signature feature: multiple-measure assessments which are embedded into the text, and completed as students read. LightSail’s formative assessments not only gauge reading comprehension, they allow LightSail to offer a consistently personalized literacy experience.

As students read, LightSail monitors their progress and updates their individual Lexile score on-the-fly, causing the library to adapt based on reading level. Students are always presented texts that are best-suited to optimize their literacy growth.…Read More

Massive growth predicted for e-books

Educators say they want integrated digital learning tools, assessments to drive literacy growth

e-book-techA new survey of 475 educators indicates that schools and districts see their use of classroom materials transitioning substantially from paper books to digital books over the next two years, according to LightSail Education.

An overwhelming majority of schools and administrators indicate a desire to build digital libraries rather than experiment with book rental and subscription models, but the market is still in its early stages.

The report, “State of the Digital Book Market,” is the first to analyze K-12 decision makers’ views on the transition from paper books to digital books and literacy platforms.…Read More

myON adds National Geographic Kids to digital platform

Select National Geographic Kids digital books now available

reading-digitalmyON, a business unit of Capstone, has added digital books from National Geographic Kids, one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational institutions in the world, to myON’s online, personalized literacy environment, which now boasts titles from over 60 different publishers.

With the addition of National Geographic Kids, myON provides a broader wealth of resources around geography, archaeology and natural science to schools nationwide using myON.

The 30 titles, which will be accessible by the end of January, are geared toward further engaging middle school students in reading, and include, among others, “Stubby the War Dog,” “Spies of the Mississippi” and “How to Get Rich on a Texas Cattle Drive.”…Read More

Amazon launches e-textbook publisher for educators

New self-publishing service lets teachers create interactive e-textbooks

kindle-publishingAmazon is rolling out a new e-textbook publishing service specifically for educators.

Called Kindle Direct Publishing EDU, the self-publishing platform lets teachers create texts by marking up existing PDFs, which can be turned into textbooks that can be uploaded to the platform and shared with students on a range of computers and mobile devices, such as iPads and Android tablets.

“Kindle Textbook Creator makes it easy for anyone to take any PDF and create a richly featured and widely available eTextbook,” said Chuck Kronbach, Director, Kindle Direct Publishing. “We look forward to seeing how authors use the new tool and getting their feedback to guide us in adding more features to KDP EDU over time.”…Read More