The Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has shown an interest in replacing normal paper textbooks in schools with ebooks.
In an article written by Schwarzenegger for the San José Mercury News, the former Terminator revealed that he has asked developers to build ebooks especially for use in the classroom.
Opening floodgates
"California is home to software giants, bioscience research pioneers and first-class university systems known around the world, but our students still learn from instructional materials in formats made possible by Gutenberg's printing press," he wrote.
"California has put out an initial call to content developers, asking that they submit high school maths and science digital texts for our review.
"We hope the floodgates are open. We'll ensure the digital texts meet and exceed California's rigorous academic standards, and we'll post the results of our review online as a reference for high school districts to use in time for fall 2009."
Digital textbook goal
Defending his argument for a digital future in the classroom, Schwarzenegger explained: "There are those who ardently defend the status quo, claiming that our vision of providing learning materials to students for free would risk a high-quality education.
"That's nonsense. As the music and newspaper industries will attest, those who adapt quickly to changing consumer and business demands will thrive in our increasingly digital society and worldwide economy.
"Digital textbooks can help us achieve those goals and ensure that California's students continue to thrive in the global marketplace."
Via the Guardian
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nicolasmerritt
June 10th
1. Slashdot comment on this story made me laugh:
"Am I the only one who finds it very suspicious that a robot from the future that pretended to be our friend is now pushing through legislation to increase our dependence on machines and technology?"
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