From Paper to Pixel

Digital textbooks will soon be part of every classroom in the United States. This trend accompanies an imperative for schools to facilitate 21st century learning in which educators prepare students to learn and live productively in a global society where accurate and current information is a meaningful part of everyday learning. As technology and the Internet have gained presence in classrooms, instructional materials and activities have become digitally rich. The use of digital textbooks is rapidly gaining ground in education. While colleges and universities have moved headlong into digital textbooks as a means to reduce costs for students, K-12 education is venturing cautiously, but steadily, into using digital textbooks. State laws, many of which have been rewritten to include digital content as an acceptable use of state textbook funding, will serve as catalysts that spur the transition to digital textbooks School librarians can provide school-wide leadership to assist students, teachers, and parent concerns when transitioning to digital textbooks. Working in collaboration with teachers, school librarians promote comprehension through questioning, clarifying, seeking meaning, and discussion. Digital textbooks may represent a way to continue advocacy for the importance of reading as well as for the school librarian's leadership role in technology integration.