Digital instructional content remains the largest slice of the growing educational technology market pie, with an estimated $3.3 billion in annual sales in the United States, even amid a challenging economic climate for K-12 districts.
鈥淎t times when things are difficult, the focus turns back to the classroom,鈥� said John Richards, the president of Newton, Mass.-based Consulting Services for Education. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a time when you want to invest in infrastructure completely or go back and fix your finance programs. It鈥檚 really a time when you鈥檝e got to pay attention to the fundamentals and see what you can do that will help teachers.鈥�
Mr. Richards is one of the authors of 鈥�2013 U.S. Education Technology Market: PreK-12,鈥� an annual overview of how districts are spending on nonhardware technology commissioned by the Washington-based Software & Information Industry Association. The most recent study covers the 2011-12 school year, when districts across the country were still suffering heavily from a weak national economy, the drying up of federal stimulus funds, and cuts to other pots of federal money previously used to support school technology purchases.
Overall, the study found, digital content represents about 42 percent of the nonhardware ed-tech market, up from 36 percent in 2010-11. English/language arts remains far and away the largest category, although the biggest year-over-year gains have been in science and 鈥渙ther鈥� content, such as fine arts, business, or health.
On the district side of the equation, experts say, the push for digital content is being driven by the need for instructional materials aligned to the new Common Core State Standards and related assessments; changes in state policy and legislation that are encouraging鈥攁nd in some cases mandating鈥攁 move away from traditional print textbooks; and the growing prevalence of digital devices in classrooms as the result of 1-to-1 computing and 鈥渂ring your own device鈥� programs.
Among vendors, meanwhile, the demand for digital content is causing 鈥渋ndustrywide friction,鈥� said Geoff Fletcher, the deputy executive director of the nonprofit State Educational Technology Directors Association, based in Glen Burnie, Md.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a push for more flexibility in content, but that鈥檚 conflicting with the [traditional publishing] business model that鈥檚 been out there for 50 years,鈥� Mr. Fletcher said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a tremendous opportunity for school districts to begin to think differently about how they get and use content.鈥�
Supporting Existing Curricula
The experience of Glen Rose Intermediate School in Texas鈥� 1,650-student Glen Rose Independent School District sheds some light on the changing dynamics of the K-12 digital content market.
To provide more 鈥�21st-century learning鈥� opportunities for students, Principal Laurin Mapes initiated a push during the 2012-13 school year to begin using Time to Know, a new 鈥渃omplete digital teaching platform鈥� from publishing giant McGraw-Hill Education, based in New York City. The product comes with new mathematics and English/language arts content in grades 4 and 5, but does not entirely replace either the print textbooks or digital instructional materials already in use at Glen Rose.
Instead, Time to Know provides a variety of lessons, readings, and content tailored to a wide range of student skill levels, all integrated into a software system that allows teachers to issue differentiated lessons and assignments, but still work with their whole classroom on the same general type of content.
Digital content providers represent the largest segment of the ed-tech market, with English/language arts being the biggest revenue producer within that segment, according to extrapolated data from the Software & Information Industry Association.
鈥淲hat we鈥檝e purchased is not completely new software or curriculum, but something that supports our existing curriculum,鈥� Ms. Mapes said. 鈥淚f a teacher is working on fractions, that鈥檚 what everyone is doing, but you can have some students above, below, and on grade level鈥� at the same time.
Scott Drossos, the senior vice president for digital partnerships for McGraw-Hill Education, said Time to Know鈥攚ith its emphasis on accessibility via mobile devices, personalized instruction to students, and real-time feedback to teachers鈥�"really represents the future for us.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e really focused on wanting to help school systems make the transition to digital successfully,鈥� Mr. Drossos said. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 get a book with Time to Know鈥攜ou鈥檙e working in a 100 percent digital realm.鈥�
Other large digital content vendors are taking similar approaches. In March, New York City-based Amplify staged a high-profile launch of its new all-digital English/language arts curriculum for middle grades. The product makes extensive use of multimedia and learning games and is powered by an adaptive-software engine that tailors content for each student.
And New York City- and London-based Pearson has been touting its Common Core System of Courses, another digital-first product intended to meet states鈥� and districts鈥� appetite for new content in new formats.
But while the big players are 鈥渞etrenching,鈥� Mr. Richards of Consulting Services for Education said, they face big challenges.
鈥淭he shift to digital really goes against a lot of the sales history and relationships they鈥檝e had,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just developing new content, it鈥檚 figuring out how to sell the content.鈥�
Content Chunks in Demand
Major publishers are also facing growing competition from startups and providers of free open education resources, or OER, many of which are tapping into educators鈥� desire for more flexible, modular instructional materials, said Mr. Fletcher of the state technology-directors association.
鈥淢ore and more of the people I talk to are expressing clearly the desire for more of an 鈥榠Tunes approach鈥� to content,鈥� he said. For districts, that means looking to access smaller chunks of content from a greater diversity of sources鈥攐r even focusing on producing their own content.
Mr. Fletcher pointed to the example of Arizona鈥檚 12,000-student Vail district, which has its own Beyond Textbooks program through which digital curricular and support materials and other digital instructional materials are developed in-house and made available online for free to all faculty members鈥攁nd, now, to more than 9,000 teachers in 88 Arizona districts and charters, according to the Vail district website.
Other states鈥攊ncluding Florida, Indiana, and Texas鈥攈ave also granted schools more flexibility in spending money traditionally allotted for textbooks on technology instead.
Mr. Fletcher said all that new energy is prompting some forward-thinking district officials to reconsider long-established purchasing practices鈥攁 trend that will likely be amplified by the ongoing influx of digital devices into classrooms and the continued need to find common-core-aligned instructional materials.
鈥淥pportunities are beginning to open up,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd it鈥檚 an exciting time in the market because of that.鈥�
