Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

1.14.10 | Educational Paperback Association Broadens Its Mission: The Educational Paperback Association has changed its name to the Educational Book & Media Association and has begun courting wholesalers of e-books and other digital media, reports Publishers Weekly.

Transitioning to digital books in the educational marketplace is expected to take a while. EPA president Neil Jaffe tells PW: “From my perspective, schools are not asking for it. We keep talking about e-books, e-books, e-books. But I think there’s going to be a 15-year window for print. The $3.95 Huck Finn is just not that expensive.”

EPA president-elect Dan Walsh, COO of Children’s Plus in Beecher, Ill., says schools need a technology upgrade. “As recently as two years ago, we were selling cassettes to schools. That’s the equipment they have.”

Digital Media & Learning Competition Timeline Extended: The competition, run by HASTAC, will begin accepting applications this Friday, Jan. 15. The due date for preliminary applications has been extended until Jan. 22. Check out the full revised timeline.

The annual effort designed to find — and to inspire — the most novel uses of new media in support of learning awards $2 million annually to innovators shaping the field of digital media and learning. You can view past projects here. 

Games and Learning: In this podcast, Futurelab senior researcher Ben Williamson and research assistant Martha Wright discuss how computer games are being used for learning in the classroom. Their conversation addresses the role of teachers and the benefits and challenges of using games to enhance curriculum. A transcript (PDF) of the discussion is also available.

Internet User Profiles Reloaded: Pew Research Center has released updated demographics for internet, broadband and wireless users. The phone survey of some 2,258 adults, conducted from Nov. 30 to Dec. 27, 2009, included interviews in Spanish. Among the findings:

• 74% of American adults (ages 18 and older) use the internet—a slight drop from our survey in April 2009, which did not include Spanish interviews. At that time we found that 79% of English-speaking adults use the internet.
• 60% of American adults use broadband connections at home—a drop that is within the margin of error from 63% found in April 2009.
• 55% of American adults connect to the internet wirelessly, either through a WiFi or WiMax connection via their laptops or through a handheld device like a smart phone. This figure did not change in a statistically significant way during 2009.