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Digital Learning Now Act

This month (actually starting on July 1) Florida's Digital Learning Now Act went into place. This act requires schol districts to establish virtual instruction options, authorizes blended learning courses, adds new requirements for Florida Virtual School, requires fill & part-time school district virtuaion instruction, and requires an online learning course for high school graduation. But what does this have to do with ebooks you might ask? As an online teacher, I feel it has a lot to do. Using ebooks for my online classes has made things a lot easier for myself and my students. I don't have issues of them ordering and how long it takes for it to arrive (my worst case was for a student who ended up out of country when the course started and if he had had to wait for the printed version, it would have taken over a month for it to get there - the course would have been half over by then). If the general instruction of a class is delivered electronically then it also makes sense to have the textbook also delivered electronically, at least as the base option, then if a student prefers a physical text, they can order that. To me the ideal textbook would be though a service like Amazon's, one where I get to download the ebook to my device but at the same time I have access to it though my computer, smart phone, and even though a secure browser. That I can already do for my students when we use an open source textbook, I convert it into multiple formats (HTM, EPUB, AZW) for them to put on their machines, but the other thing that Amazon does that I can only wish now, would be the synchronization of information between all the devices. I think it would be great to be able to read when I'm able with what ever device, make my notes and highlights, and have every other device know where I am and what was done. That is what I see as the future of textbooks.



CS/CS/HB 7179 - Digital Learning Act: http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=46852
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  1. I believe this is a smart idea! My young ones are getting involved in digital books. They especially love Lazytown Digital Books.

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