Educational Materials: Difference between revisions

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:''See [[History of US Textbook Publishing]]''
:''See [[History of US Textbook Publishing]]''


"The development of modern practices in textbook publishing in the USA was concomitant with the rise of mass education, characterized by graded organization of formal schooling into classes." [[History of US Textbook Publishing#Bibliography|(Watt 2007, 4)]]
Michael Watt has traced the history of US textbook publishing to the 1880s and ascribes the emergence of the textbook to “greater uniformity in local education systems resulting from immigration and industrialization” [[History of US Textbook Publishing#Bibliography|(2007, 9)]]. For Watt, “the development of modern practices in textbook publishing in the USA was concomitant with the rise of mass education, characterized by graded organization of formal schooling into classes" [[History of US Textbook Publishing#Bibliography|(ibid., 4)]].
 
"Several surveys conducted in association with a report on textbooks issued in 1931 indicated that procedures for selecting authors, their role, and the methods they applied were well defined at this time. Commentators reporting on textbook publishing in the 1950s and 1960s depicted an industry in which the publishing process and the roles of authors, editors and sales people had been institutionalized for many years. However, the textbook publishing industry of that time was faced by the challenges of integrating new technologies in printing and new media for presenting materials. Commentators writing in the 1990s were more concerned to analyze changes in the textbook publishing industry occurring in response to globalization. Mergers and takeovers, resulting from reductions in profit margins faced by many textbook publishing companies, led to the incorporation of textbook publishing activities within multinational media, communications and entertainment conglomerates, whilst small emerging textbook publishing companies filled a vacuum in the marketplace as niche publishers." [[History of US Textbook Publishing#Bibliography|(Watt 2007, 5)]]


=== Taxonomy of Educational Materials Industries ===
=== Taxonomy of Educational Materials Industries ===

Revision as of 15:22, 8 June 2009

Field Definition

Basic Definition

The field of educational materials (EM) refers to a subset of the book, games, Internet, and software publishing industries that is focused on providing resources to a variety of educational market segments. For instance, PricewaterhouseCoopers characterizes the EM sector as divided into digital and non-digital solutions (Cola, et al. 2009) . At the K-12 educational level, digital solutions include a range of technologies used to enhance the delivery and the administration of K-12 education, including data management systems, web-based course and assessment materials, and online tutoring and professional development—however, we will only focus on those digital solutions products that have specific educational purposes and where knowledge is embedded in a form that can be enclosed by some form of intellectual property. Regarding non-digital solutions, we include textbooks, course packs and other supplementary materials, and various educative toys and games.

Actors providing these materials are private companies such as publishers controlling the textbook and complementary materials markets; global media companies focused on the family-based market, such as the Discovery Channel; public institutions, such as National Public Radio; universities and their presses, providing both closed and open educational materials; and independent organizations and associations comprising educators and interested individuals wanting to contribute to the open educational resources (OER) movement.

"A significant feature of most educational resources is that they are restricted to many and can cost a lot to gain access to. This is largely because of a market economy around educational resources. They are copyrighted and packaged up as objects--books, journals, videos--that have to be bought from a store or accessed through course fees or university repositories (libraries in most cases). Even if this copyrighted material is available in public libraries, it is then effectively rationed by the numbers of copies available and the costs and opportunity costs involved in people traveling to the library to use them (with that use being further restricted by the all rights reserved copyright applied to them)." (Iiyoshi and Kumar 2008, 149)

History

See History of US Textbook Publishing

Michael Watt has traced the history of US textbook publishing to the 1880s and ascribes the emergence of the textbook to “greater uniformity in local education systems resulting from immigration and industrialization” (2007, 9). For Watt, “the development of modern practices in textbook publishing in the USA was concomitant with the rise of mass education, characterized by graded organization of formal schooling into classes" (ibid., 4).

Taxonomy of Educational Materials Industries

Focus Market Segments

  • K-12 Level
    The Educational Materials Sector for K-12 in the USA can be divided into non-digital and digital solutions. Digital Solutions is a general term that describes a range of technologies used to enhance the delivery and the administration of K-12 education, including data management systems, web-based course and assessment materials, and online tutoring and professional development. While under the non-digital solutions for K-12 education we find textbooks, course-materials and other products, such as educative toys and games.
  • Higher Education Level
    • College Textbooks and Course Materials
    • University Press
      • i.e. Non-textbook academic and professional works used in college courses

De-prioritized Market Segments

  • Educational Software
    • Internet-based activities (in Flash, Java, etc.)
    • Educational Games

Excluded from Field Definition

  • Encyclopedias
  • Periodicals
  • Non-digital Educational Games
  • Any resource not overtly produced for educational purposes
    • i.e. Flickr photos and YouTube videos used in media education
  • YouTube EDU

Study of the Field

Analyses of the EM sector based on the Field Research Methodology at:

The K-12 Level

The Higher Education Level

Bibliographies Addressing Research Outline

Bibliography for Item 1 in EM
Bibliography for Item 2 in EM
Bibliography for Item 3 in EM
Bibliography for Item 4 in EM
Bibliography for Item 5 in EM
Bibliography for Item 6 in EM
Bibliography for Item 7 in EM
Bibliography for Item 8 in EM
Bibliography for Item 9 in EM
Bibliography for Item 10 in EM
Bibliography for Item 11 in EM

Resources

Links

Links on EM

Blogs and News

Blogs to watch on EM

Interviews

See Contacts for EM for full list of potential interviewees.

  • Jonathan Emmons
    • Community Development Specialist, Connexions
    • Phone: (713) 348 - 2392
    • Email: jonathan [dot] emmons [at] cnx [dot] org
    • Conference Call Scheduled for 10am EDT on Monday, 03/25/09

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