Simba Information: Looking for Your Child's Textbook? Check Her Laptop, Not Her Backpack

News provided by

Aug 24, 2016, 09:43 ET

STAMFORD, Conn., Aug. 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As school doors across the country begin opening for the 2016-2017 school year, teachers and students increasingly are picking up laptops, tablets and even their phones instead of backpacks full of textbooks.

The digitization of classrooms in recent years is the most significant change for the educational publishing industry that provides the learning materials to schools. Publishing for the PreK-12 Market 2016-2017, the most recent market forecast from Simba Information, examines how the schools are changing, how the publishing industry is adapting to those changes—and even out in front of some of the changes—and what is likely ahead through 2019.

"In 2016, schools and the $8.56 billion educational publishing industry are still trying to figure out the needs of students, how best to meet those needs and what roles the instructional materials industry will play," said Kathy Mickey, senior analyst and managing editor of Simba's Education Group, which produced the report.

If personalization is the watchword of the digital age, textbook, the iconic term that has embodied both the specific print book and the general category of core instructional materials used in classrooms, has become a symbol of the past—outdated and old school.

With this new report, Simba began using basal curriculum to define the core comprehensive instructional content used in classrooms. "These programs increasingly have little resemblance to single-volume traditional textbooks," Mickey said. "For the most part, traditional textbook publishers have said they now build programs digitally from the ground up."

Even core basal curriculum programs, entrenched in part because of the robust teacher support that comes with them, remain challenged. Teachers increasingly want smaller components of the content in those programs so they can recombine them to fit their classroom instructional needs. There is increasing interest in alternatives—video, children's fiction and non-fiction literature, for instance. In what could be the future of instructional materials, companies are developing platforms that integrate proprietary and open educational resources.

Forecasting ongoing change for the instructional materials industry, Simba projects the industry will grow at a 1.6% compound annual rate to $9.19 billion in 2019.

For more information on Simba's new report,Publishing for the PreK-12 Market 2016-2017, visit http://www.simbainformation.com/Publishing-PreK-9618089/ or call 888-29-SIMBA.

Please link any media or news references to our reports or data to: www.simbainformation.com.

About Simba Information
Simba Information is widely recognized as the leading authority for market intelligence in the media and publishing industry. Simba's extensive information network delivers top quality, independent perspective on the people, events and alliances shaping the media and information industry. Simba publishes newsletters and research reports that provide key decision-makers at more than 15,000 client companies. For more information, please visit www.simbainformation.com.

Contact:
Kathy Mickey
Managing Editor/Senior Analyst, Education Group
Simba Information
203-325-8193 x7410
[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150831/262419LOGO

SOURCE Simba Information