Running head: TRENDS IN DIGITAL CONTENT

Trends in Digital Content: Will Emerging Technologies Transform Our

Current Educational Model?
Cynthia Sargent
California State University, Monterey Bay

IST524 Instructional Technology

Cynthia Sargent
December 5, 2014

TRENDS IN DIGITAL CONTENT

Trends in Digital Content: Will Emerging Technologies Transform Our

Current Educational Model?
Technology has been in schools and classrooms for decades, yet the current pace at
which new technology features emerge has become blisteringly fast. To predict the potential
impact of todays emerging instructional technologies, particularly those related to digital
content, it is worthwhile to analyze how technology innovations in the past decade have
impacted teaching and learning, and consider whether technology and its affordances is powerful
enough to be the driving force for such transformation.
Imagine the following scenario relating the experience of a science teacher who began
her career at the turn of the 21 st century (circa 2000). To prepare lessons for her students, the
teacher relies heavily on photocopies of materials produced, or otherwise acquired, by others in
her department or she uses the ancillary materials provided by the publisher of the course
textbook. In fact, the district recently adopted a new Biology textbook and the teacher is happy to
find that the textbooks end-of-chapter summaries include suggested articles from Science News
magazine which the teacher can access from the school library, copy, and use in class
discussions to make the science content relevant to her students. The teacher has a constructivist
teaching philosophy and engages students in learning through guided discovery and social
learning that often takes place through collaborative hands-on lab activities.
Technology is essentially absent from the teachers daily work, except for the use of a
personal computer to produce worksheets, lab handouts and assessments. She does not use this
computer for presentations due to the need to borrow an LCD projector; instead she relies on
chalkboards, whiteboards or an overhead projector. Eventually technology resources on her

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campus improve and the teacher is given a computer station at the front of the room and she
transitions to using PowerPoint as the main medium with which to present course content. She
uses the internet as a source for images for her PowerPoint presentations, as well as a source of
new ideas and materials for lesson planningto supplement the materials she continues to use
from the textbook publisher. Unfortunately, some of the textbook materials are already out of
date, such as the Science News articles published in the late 1990s, and the teacher is no longer
able to use these as relevant resources to spark discussions.
Ten years into her career the teachers classroom and teaching practices have been both
subtly and significantly influenced by continual adoption of new technologies made available to
her. For example, the teacher engages students in discussions and reflection and practice with
new contentas she regularly did in prior yearshowever she now uses a SMARTboard to
provide them opportunities to reflect and practice through manipulation of objects on the board,
drawing concept maps or diagrams, or playing review games. The teacher also manages a class
website to post teacher-created materials online for students, such as unit study guides, as well as
a collection of links to internet learning resources (such as animations that may help students
visualize science processes and phenomena). It is important to note that the students are learning
from the Biology textbook the district adopted many years before, so online resources are sought
for dual purposes: engaging the digital native learner, and as a source for more current content
than the textbook provides. Students access these resources on a limited basis outside of class
based on their own volitionand at times during the school day when her science class uses the
school computer lab.
The teachers experience profiled in this introduction demonstrates that technology
innovation and integration over time can certainly change a classroom environment and enhance

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the educational experience in a number of ways. However, none of the technological

advancements were truly transformational. The teachers pedagogical philosophy and teaching
practices remained consistent over time; the technology simply provided some affordances to
make the execution of those practices easier or make the science content more appealing than the
format of the content in the out-of-date textbook.
If one considers the SAMR model of technology integration progressionsubstitution,
augmentation, modification, and redefinitionthe teacher mainly used the new technology tools
in ways that would be classified as substitution, or augmentation (Puentedura, 2014). The
same basic types of learning activities, including lecture, reading, discussions, worksheets,
hands-on laboratory activities, and viewing media (video, animation, simulation, or similar) took
place throughout this teachers tenure. New technologies were adopted yet they never redefined
the teacher or leaners fundamental roles or learning tasks.
The scenario described happens to be that of the author of this paper; yet it is not atypical.
Chou, Block, & Jesness (2012) carried out a case study of a large-scale iPad adoption in 9 th grade
Geography classes and found that teachers recognized benefits to the iPad, including increased
student engagement, and made good use of the devices in their classrooms. Yet the teachers were
frequently observed using technology at the lower two levels of SAMR. They note:
Technology integration is more than just using the tools. It requires careful
instructional design that links learning objectives to specific learning tasks or
activities that lead to measurable outcomes. Not all faculty members have the
technology expertise to create technology-enriched learning experiences (p 16).

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And while the case study involved carefully planned professional development based on two
sound models (the SAMR model and Fangs performance based faculty development model) it
was concluded that the teachers need more time and collaboration to move to the higher levels of
SAMR (Chou, Block, & Jesness, 2012). Other research confirms the importance of high quality
sustained professional development as a key factor to integrating technology in ways that
improve learning outcomes (Gerard, L.F., Varma, K., Corliss, S.B., & Linn, M.C., 2011).
This, however, is costly and time-consuming and the positive impact on learning may
never be realized by all of the teachers participating in the professional development. For this
reason, it is necessary to reduce the burden currently placed on teachers to provide the
instructional design to create effective technology-enriched learning experiences and instead
develop new and novel affordances within the technology itself in order to reduce the
implementation challenges that have thus far slowed transformation of the educational model.
This strategy may very well be employed by transforming a familiar instructional toolthe
textbook. If realized, this transformation has enormous potential for impacting a large number of
our nations students.
A large portion of a districts spending goes toward textbooks. According to the State
Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) in 2011 school districts spent $5.5
billion dollars to purchase textbooks with the expectation that the textbooks will be used for
610 years. Despite this investment in printed text, there is a growing trend toward digital
content, such as e-textbooks, and SETDA asserts, It is not a matter of if reimagining the
textbook will permeate all of education, only a matter of how fast (p. 5). The association
identifies a number of advantages to shifting from print to digital content, including:

the ability to keep content up to date

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flexibility in customizing the content

availability of the content on any platform from anywhere

cost-savings

digital tools, such as highlighting or annotation

inclusion of multimedia and interactive elements

embedded formative assessment and progress monitoring

adaptive learning paths and personalized learning (Fletcher, G., Schaffhauser, D.,
& Levin, D. 2012)

A recent example of this shift is occurring in the El Paso Independent School District in Texas.
The district adopted digital textbooks mainly for the cost savings but also cite the advantage of
flexibility as well as the richness and variety that videos and interactive simulations provide
(Anderson, 2014). These advantages, and support provided by federal programs such as the
National Education Technology Plan and the National Broadband Plan, are likely to contribute to
the shift from printed textbooks to digital content. In fact, to promote a Wi-Fi connection in
every classroom, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission recently announced
his proposal for a 62 percent increase in spending to help schools and libraries acquire highspeed internet connections (Wyatt, 2014). The outlook is good that in the near future classrooms
will have the connectivity needed to access digital content. This is important, because teacher
frustration with technical difficulties can hinder implementation, as evidenced by the statement
when teachers stop trusting the network, they often put away the devices and revert to
traditional teaching methods that require no digital content at all (Fletcher, G., Schaffhauser, D.,
& Levin, D. 2012, p 30).

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Many studies have compared reading comprehension and learner perceptions when
reading printed text compared to e-text. In one such study, results show that there is no
significant difference in reading comprehension or cognitive learning related to the format of the
text, and there is a positive effect on the affective domain for students reading e-text (RockinsonSzapkiw, A., Courduff, J., Carter, K., Bennett, D., 2013). So the potential for significant learning
gains using digital content must come from affordances other than simply a digital presentation
of traditional text. The most promising affordance emerging on the horizon is the potential for
complex adaptive learning pathways within digital content. In the Learning Impact Report
(2013), adaptive learning and digital e-text innovation and analytics were technologies that had
great potential for impacting learning gains while also being straightforward in implementation.
In comparison, games and blended learning optimization were seen as technologies with only a
moderate potential to impact learning gains and have significant or complex challenges in
implementation (IMS Global Learning Consortium, 2013).
Yang, T-C, Hwang, G-J, and Yang, S. (2012) developed an adaptive learning system that
took into account both learning styles and cognitive styles. The experimental group that received
instruction personalized in two ways by the adaptive system had significantly better learning
gains compared to a control group which received personalized only on the basis of learning
style. The adaptive learning system changed the presentation layout framework based on the
learners cognitive style and changed the navigation modes based on learning style. In addition
to the better achievement in the experimental group, this groups participants also had a
difference in the Control Beliefs dimension; this group had a belief that they would obtain
good learning achievements. This study provides convincing evidence for the power of an
adaptive learning system, which can be integrated within digital content media, such as e-

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textbooks, to improve learning. Pedagogical agents, or avatars, have also been used to
personalize learning and technology advances, such as facial expression recognition, are now
making it possibly to personalize the agents actions and responses in an adaptive way as the
learner engages with the digital content (Leung, S. Lin, F., Armstrong, A, Dubbelboer, A., 2013).
The possibility for adapting content and learning experiences for every student is close to being
realized through these new affordances in digital content.
Unlike technology adoptions of the past decade, which focused more on the teacher as
the agent of change, todays technologies are trending toward a focus on learner by customizing
the delivery of content and the learning experience by allowing the learner to interact with the
technology in a personalized way. Improvements in the internet connectivity of schools will
make it possible to bring this type of customized and adaptive learning to millions of students.
The role of the teacher will change, reducing the burden on the teacher for providing
personalized and differentiated learning, and the teacher will be able to move more easily into
the role of a facilitator and data analyst as she monitors her students progress through digital
learning activities and provides interventions and expert knowledge when necessary. In this way,
the technology will truly transform the educational model.

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9
References

Anderson, L., (2014, October 8). EPISD switches to e-books for high school science. El Paso
Times. Retrieved from http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_26690335
Chou, C. C., Block, L., & Jesness, R. (2012). A case study of mobile learning pilot project in K12 schools. Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange, 5(2), 1126.
Fletcher, G., Schaffhauser, D., & Levin, D. (2012). Out of print: Reimagining the K-12 textbook
in a digital age. Washington, DC: State Educational Technology Directors Association
(SETDA).
Gerard, L.F., Varma, K., Corliss, S.B., & Linn, M.C. (2011). Professional development for
technology-enhanced inquiry science, Review of Educational Research, September, 408448.
IMS Global Learning Consortium. (2013) Learning impact report: e-texts and adaptive learning
leading the way to an emerging world of educational apps. Retrieved from
http://www.imsglobal.org/LIA/LIA2013Report.pdf
Leung, S. Lin, F., Armstrong, A, Dubbelboer, A. (2013) TSI-enhanced pedagogical agents to
engage learners in virtual worlds. International Journal of Distance Education Technologies,
11(1), 1-13.
Puentedura, R. SAMR in the classroom: Developing sustainable practice [PDF document].
Retrieved from Ruben R. Puenteduras Weblog: http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/
Rockinson-Szapkiw, A., Courduff, J., Carter, K., Bennett, D. (2013). Electronic versus
traditional print textbooks: A comparison study on the influence of university students learning.
Computers and Education, 63 (2013), 259-256.

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Wyatt, E., (2014, November 17). F.C.C. Chief Aims to Bolster Internet for Schools. New York
Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/us/politics/obama-to-seek-moreinternet-aid-for-schools-and-libraries.html
Yang, T-C, Hwang, G-J, and Yang, S. (2012) Development of an adaptive learning system with
multiple perspectives based on students learning styles and cognitive styles. Educational
Technology & Society, 16(4), 185-200.