Sunday, April 8, 2001 Reprinted with courtesy from The Star Ledger
BY
BEV MCCARRON
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
Seventh-grader Jessica Wildey doesn't lug home her 5-pound English textbook anymore. She does her homework in cyberspace.
She calls her book up online, types in answers and e-mails her work back to her teachers.
Her Morris County school is on the front lines in the movement toward electronic text, serving as a testing ground this year for a Texas-based publisher that expects to launch its online textbook nationwide next year.
Administrators at her school, Memorial Junior Middle School in Hanover, say it may be the only public school in New Jersey with an electronic textbook and is one of few nationwide trying out the new technology, which is just beginning to enter the K-12 classroom.
In use since September in the school's seventh- and eighth-grade English classes, the e-texts come with a hardcover book for those who want them. Teachers have discovered most kids would rather work online.
"I think it's easier. As soon as I get home, I do this homework first," said Jessica.
A dramatic increase in Internet hookups and access to computers has opened the classroom door to interactive, online texts. Several textbook companies -- including Barrett Kendall Publishing of Texas and the McGraw-Hill Cos. of New York -- are testing them this year in preparation for a nationwide launch.
Barrett Kendall, which sold the online texts to Memorial as one of its 10 test schools, expects to have e-texts in the hands of 250,000 students next year. Still, people in both education and publishing say online books are at least five years away from becoming a classroom staple.
"Online text is still in the infancy stage of development," said Stephen Driesler, executive director of the school division of the Association of American Publishers in Washington, D.C.
"We'll certainly see increased use of them and there are a number of benefits, including reducing the size and weight of books kids carry around, and they can be instantly updated. But, we're still quite a few years away before electronic delivery surpasses printed."
At Memorial, English teacher Joe Greene heard about online texts at a textbook conference last spring and the school invited Barrett Kendall in for a demonstration.
Instead of replacing their outdated English textbook with another paper version, the school chose the e-text. For about $49 per book -- about the same price of a hardcover -- the district got an online book, a set of hardback books for the classroom and a book for each child to take home.
In Greene's seventh-grade classroom, which is outfitted with 10 computers he recently got through a grant, all the students also have computers at home, eliminating the need to take books home. In colleague Rita Vex's eighth-grade class, five kids don't have computers, so she gave out books.
On a recent day, the kids demonstrated how they can access the Web site, key in a password, call up their text on half of the computer screen and do their work on the other half.
Seventh-grader George Makris likes his online book better than a paper one, not least because he doesn't have another heavy book weighing down his backpack.
Principal Harvey Altman said he's happy because more kids are doing their English homework.
"It's a motivational tool," Altman said. "And any technique that causes students to want to learn, I'm interested in."
Online texts are expected to get their biggest exposure in Texas, where the state board of education recently approved the use of two online books, including Barrett Kendall's "English: Communication Skills in the New Millennium."
Barrett Kendall spokesman Jeff Pennell said that while about 3,000 kids this year are using that e-text, the number will shoot up next year, with schools in Texas, Florida and California trying them out.
"We just finished a big sales season," said Pennell.
The McGraw-Hill Cos. -- one of the nation's biggest textbook publishers -- recently announced that they will soon post six science textbooks online for elementary and middle school grades. Those books are being tested in schools in Hawaii, Georgia and Florida, said April Hettori, spokeswoman for McGraw-Hill.
Until recently, the textbook publishing industry provided complete electronic versions of textbooks only at the college level.
Because New Jersey allows each district to choose its own text, the state Department of Education doesn't track them and officials couldn't confirm that Memorial was the only public school with an online text. But they said they didn't doubt it.
"Online textbooks have only been around a short time so they're obviously among the pioneers," said Richard Vespucci, spokesman for the Department of Education.
At the private school level, Wardlaw-Hartridge High School in Edison, where all ninth- and tenth- graders have their own school-issued laptop, some classes are using textbook CD-ROMS. Other public districts, such as Piscataway, use CD-ROMS that supplement a text but don't duplicate it.
The program used at Memorial allows kids to read text and do homework online, however. It also automatically grades multiple- choice homework and tests, then posts the scores to the teachers' electronic grade books.
It offers links to supplementary materials. Students can read a chapter on John F. Kennedy and click on a link to a related Web site carrying his speeches.
"This can't compete with a book," said Greene. "There's so much more it can do."
Hettori said the McGraw-Hill e- texts will be able through video clips to illustrate such concepts as the Earth revolving around the sun or a volcano erupting. Since Vex started using the program in her eighth-grade class, she gives most of her tests online, open-book style, and her students take them from home, freeing up class time for teaching. The exams are posted for a certain amount of time, and kids without home computers can access them at the computer lab or in the library.
In a district that prides itself on high standardized test scores, Vex said she believes she can tell if someone cheats if their grades undergo a sudden change. The school is considering an honor code for next year.
Experts say the biggest drawback of online texts is the "digital divide" between affluent and poorer schools, which could further widen an achievement gap.
"The issue is not the technology," said Driesler. "It exists to deliver the materials electronically. The big issues are, how do you do that in a cost-effective way that does not discriminate against people who cannot afford or do not have Internet access at home?"
"If there's a movement toward online text, you're really leaving a significant amount of kids behind," added Barry Fishman, assistant professor of educational technology at the Michigan School of Education.
Driesler said online text would become more widely used when schools give out laptops or Palm readers as readily as they do textbooks. Some states are already looking at issuing laptops to each student, he said.
At Memorial, where there's a high ratio of computers to kids, teachers see several advantages to online texts: The material can be updated readily to accommodate an advance in science, or a new president. There's no more struggling to decipher sloppy handwriting.
And with online texts, students can miss a class, but not that day's homework assignment, which can be e-mailed out by a teacher.
The ease of using a computer still doesn't mean everyone is doing homework, however.
"Instead
of, 'My dog ate the homework,' it's 'My server was down, or my brother
wouldn't let me online,'" Greene said
