per christian opsahl

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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



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





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.





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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





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!





• THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

per christian opsahl

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