Textbooks may go electronic in Los Angeles
By Paul Biba
Already passed by the Senate, the California Assembly is looking at a bill to allow schools to provide students with electronic versions of textbooks. Here’s a bit of the article from the Los Angeles Times:
California law limits how school districts can use state funds for instructional materials, requiring them to purchase enough textbooks for all students before spending money on electronic material.
As a result, some districts have purchased materials in both book form and software or have refrained from buying software, Alquist said.
SB 247 would allow districts to satisfy textbook requirements if they can provide each student with hardware and software that meet the same accessibility requirements that printed textbooks offer. …
A separate measure in the state Assembly would require publishers to furnish instructional materials in an electronic format at less cost than the print version.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Cal also wants to use open textbooks as much as they can. One problem is said to be the burdensome requirements cal-laws put upon what the schools can use as a textbook.
But if they crack the textbook nut, everything else behind the text-book dike should come cascading out, and kids all over the country will have etextbooks open and free of all drm, available for any platform or reading device.