Lady LUX

LUXies, California is looking to make a ‘learning revolution’ by incorporating technological advances into the information available to high school students. This transition into digital format would revolutionize the future of school textbooks and would change the landscape of our school systems!

Due to California’s current deficit the Governor has had to look at ways we can become more efficient as state. One of the biggest ways we can reduce future costs is to look at ways to leverage the amount of money we spend on our school systems in way to create more long-lasting impact. Last year alone, California spent about $350 million on traditional textbooks and most of those are outdated by the time they hit classrooms, leaving a never ending cycle of outdated information and short-term investments.

Governor Schwarzenegger is proposing that an increase in technology be implemented in high schools across the state as a way to cut future costs of textbooks and to give high school students direct access to the most updated information!! This proposal seems to have long-term merit and appropriate given the audience, high school students, who have grown up with technology as a part of life. A definite LUX approach to learning!

Schwarzenegger believes that with a state that has ‘software giants, bioscience research pioneers and first-class university system known around the world’ that our high school textbooks need to embrace this forward-thinking approach!

As a way to start to explore this possibility, he has asked education officials across the state to review a variety of open source textbooks available online to evaluate whether these sources will meet the current curriculum standards.

“We expect the first science and math books to be digital by this fall,” Schwarzenegger said. “If we expand this to more textbooks, schools could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and that’s hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to hire more teachers and to reduce class sizes.” –via

Associated Press

There are some drawbacks to this proposal though. California’s school system has one of the most rigorous approval systems for core subjects in the nation. This means that ‘free’ online resources for textbooks just might not make the cut and that there will still be an additional cost to get people up to date in technology allowing for the efficiency of ‘e-books.’ If this is the case, this proposal by the Governor just might not be the solution to help the current budget restraints.

The good news is that California is a trendsetter by their mere size and the fact that they are exploring these new digital media formats for school systems does influence how other states could take a more avid future approach.

The future trend of online books and instant access to information seems to be inevitable for schools and we look forward to seeing what will come of this new proposal!! It has a lot of potential to help save many resources and minimize the impact that hardcover books have on our environment. Although, it also seems to be apparent that there are many more action steps that are necessary in order to make this transition plausible and as effective as possible!! Definitely a LUX proposal and we here at LadyLUX look forward to seeing the future of digital media and how this ‘learning revolution’ evolves!!

To learn more, see Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal for yourself!

Live.Learn.LUX.

Tagged in: california, digital media, budget restraints, learning revolution, open source technology, governor schwarzenegger, effective, investment, school systems, e-books,