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IS IT TIME FOR DIGITAL TEXTBOOKS IN POLISH SCHOOLS?
Gazeta Wyborcza, Debate
Warszawa, 7th December 2011”THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH
DIGITAL LEARNING RESOURCES IN
SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011”Per Christian Opsahl
Managing Director
The Norwegian Publishers Association
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THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL LEARNING
RESOURCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011
NORWAY TODAY:
• Close to 5 mill inhabitants• Compulsory 13 years basic schooling
• 600 000 students in grades 1 – 10
• 165 000 in grades 11 – 13 (secondary, vocational included)
• 3200 primary schools owned by more than 400 local
communities
• 900 secondary schools, owned by 19 counties
• A sustainable market for printed bookswith many
competing publishers
• The absence of a market when it comes to digital
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THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL LEARNING
RESOURCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011
PC COVERAGE AND
INFRASTRUCTURE IN SCHOOLS:• PC-coverage very high
• Infrastructure good
• PC-use very high• Widespread use of Learning Management Systems
• Primarely on-line resources
• Most resources developed for pupils, not teachers.Norwegian school is extremely centered around individual
work for pupils.
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THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL LEARNING
RESOURCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011
TEACHERS`FREEDOM OF CHOICE:
• Governmental approval of textbooks wasabandoned in 2000
• Teachers decide what textbooks to use
• The principle of freedom of choice of
learning materials and teaching methods is
highly valued
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THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL LEARNING
RESOURCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011
THE NEW LENDING SYSTEM:
• Until 2009 students bought their own books• 50 % sales on new books, 50 % used book market
• From 2009 schools lend books to students
• Where the publishers in the past sold 5000 copies,sales drops to approximately 500-600 copies
• Devastating effects in a small market
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THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL LEARNING
RESOURCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011
NATIONAL DIGITAL LEARNING
AREA (NDLA)• Founded in 2007 by 18 of 19 counties (Oslo, the largest decided not to
participate)
• Produces stand-alone Digital Learning Resources (DLR) and offers
them for ”free” to secondary schools – grades 11 – 13• Aim: to substitute all printed material with stand-alone DLR by 2015
• Replacing all products from privat suppliers
• Financed by governmental funds for textbooks and other learning
material• 2010 and 2011 – 20 % of governmental funding meant for learning
resources allocated alone to NDLA
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THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL LEARNING
RESOURCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011
IMPLICATIONS:
• School owners produce and order their schools touse NDLA material only
• A state monopoly publishing house in the making
• Publishers reduced to subcontractors• Destroying the free market and free competition
among publishers
• Forcing publishers to reduce og quit this segment
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THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL LEARNING
RESOURCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011
NDLA: A WET DREAM FOR SCHOOL
POLITICIANS? BEING MODERN AND SAVING
MONEY AT THE SAME TIME?ALARM BELLS
ARE RINGING:
• Teachers fear end of free choice of teaching material
• Teachers fear end of free choice of didactic approach to teaching• Students welcome free material, but agree monopoly and state
publishing house must be stopped
• Students and teachers argue that time is not ripe for stant-alone DLR,
and favour publishers`DLR in combination with textbooks• In some counties school authorities banned purchase of books and
ordered use of NDLA material, only
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THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL LEARNING
RESOURCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011
RESPONSES SO FAR:
• Students: give us the books back • Media response: Students reject digital
books – and many student buy their own
paper books
• Surveys show that the digital content
provided by NDLA is very little in use –that is a huge contradiction to all resources
and money that have been invested
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THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL LEARNING
RESOURCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011
ACTIONS TAKEN:• Numerous meetings with politicians of all colours
• Meetings with and petitions to the Ministry from publishers, teachers,
students, authors etc
• Nationwide conferences on ICT in education
• The economic implications analyzed by independent consultants
• The Norwegian Publishers Association engaged Norways` leading
PR/Communication Agency for strategic/political counselling
• NDLA and national and EU competition regulations have been
analyzed by independent law firms – in 2010 we sent a complaint to
EFTAS Surveillance Agency alleging that NDLA has been granted
illegal state aid
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THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL LEARNING
RESOURCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011
NORWEGIAN PUBLISHERS
ASSOCIATION`S POSITION:
• The norwegian publishers are not against digital content in
any ways – the publishers are competent to make all kind
off different digital resources that are asked for
• It is impossible to compete with free
• The publishers want to compete on a free market – and the
government should help the marked by stimulating the
demand with fresh money
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THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL LEARNING
RESOURCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011
LATEST DEVELOPMENT:
• ESA ruled negative against us: NDLA is notgranted illegal state aid – we consider to make an
appeal – the decicion is available at the ESA`s
website: www.eftasurv.int
• Good news though!: In November the second
largest county withdrew from NDLA – that means
that 25 % of money is out of NDLAs hands – wework now very hard to get more counties to
withdraw
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THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL LEARNING
RESOURCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:• Don`t force digital content upon students and teachers – at least
provide them with content they are ready to use!
• There should be a plan for digital content in school – were do digital
do better than paper and what are the didactic strengths. We don`t
believe in textbooks made digital - we believe in Digital Learning
Material that are developed for the digital purpose and use• Don`t even think that the paper book is dead. Our experience is that a
combination with text book and digital resources that works best.
• Don`t think that the state produces better learning material than the
publishers – and forget the idea that digital is cheaper than paper. Onthe other hand: publishers must not stick to old times and pretend that
the paper world lasts forever – we have to adopt to new learning
material – and there are many competitive wolves out there!
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THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL LEARNING
RESOURCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 2007-2011
• THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!