What should traditional educational book publishers consider in moving their materials from paper to digital forms?

1. Expense - carefully consider your business plan; there are many "hidden" costs:

   Initial template design can cost $250,000 - subsequent discs in a series far cheaper

   Books on disc will not work - new paradigms required

   MM involves more design, more pictures, more sound, video??, some technological licensing

   But educational multimedia can never have production values of games - major problem

   Testing (on various operating systems/computers/ drivers) is crucial and an added new cost

   Don’t forget the costs of providing technical support after release - it WILL be required

   Plan for technology updates/upgrades

   • Build on-going investment into business plan

   • 1-2 year life for most products without some change

   • Build product line around consistent engine and interface

   • easier to update/upgrade/support

   • If you use a commercially available engine, such as Macromedia Director, or Toolbook, you are dependent on its schedule of advances

   • May have large footprint with a lot of excess baggage

   • May be difficult to integrate with sub engines - such as Speech Recognition

   • But engineers who know the application easier to find

   • In-house engine more reliable/flexible but training of engineers can be problematical

   You can outsource developers and engineers on a project basis, but you still generally need a core of in-house engineers and development editors

   Marketing materials - such as a demo disc - are major development projects in themselves

   You may also need a different sales force/structure - all with portable computers!

   Support systems increasingly necessary - Records management, testing, teacher training

   Translation support - for which markets, developed when?

   Beware of Feature Creep - perfecting the last 10% can take forever

   
   

2. Pricing - very tough to get right

   CD is psychological unit of value - as per music CDs - consider DVD carefully

   Complicated by the many pricing needed for multiple copies, networking

   Don’t assume volume, especially if your product is localized in terms of curriculum/look

   Remember your expenses!

   
   

3. Piracy - a real problem with no good solutions

   Hacking guidelines for all systems easily available on the internet

   Selling “services” may be only solution

   
   

4. Internet - bandwidth still an issue, but solutions coming

   Be wary of delivering atavistic multimedia solutions - such as text based exercises

   Self-study generally doesn’t work - so contact, chat rooms, teacher follow-up essential

   Still to be seen whether these at-a-distant systems will satisfy

   Possibility of charging for internet services is still a big unknown

   
   

What special considerations should be taken into account in providing multimedia/internet forms of language training materials?

1. Unique capabilities of multimedia for language training

   Listening - with comprehension support

   High quality sound

   Simple, non-distracting graphics

   Instant repeat

   Text/script viewing

   Hyperlinked glossaries - grammar and vocabulary

   Built-in comprehension questions

   Translation support as a last resort

   
   

   Speaking - Speech Recognition

   Continuous Speech / Speaker Independent

   Tuned to non-native speakers

   Moving toward requiring more active formulations

   Randomization - helps motivation, extends usefulness of material

   Helps skill building - mastery, not familiarity

   Adaptability - content as well as testing

   Immediate, built-in feedback / Record Keeping - intelligent tutoring coming

   
   

2. Multimedia most important at lower levels

   Higher level language students need LOTS of materials - expensive to provide

   Listening & Speaking most important for lower level students - MM strength

   Reading/writing more important at higher levels - paper best?

   MM almost necessarily generic in nature because of production costs

   teachers better at providing specialized/personalized content/practice which higher level students, in particular, need

   
   

3. Teacher Support - central to success

   Transparent Technology

   Scope & Sequencing still needed

   Placement & Achievement Testing

   Comprehensive Record Keeping

   Detailed Documentation

   User and Installation Guides

   Student Study Guides

   Testing and Evaluation Guides

   Records Manager Guides

   Comprehensive Teacher’s Guides

   Overview of program content and pedagogy

   Guidelines for orienting students in how to use the program

   Step-by-step suggestions for classroom follow-up

   Separately available coursebooks???

   Teacher Training - teachers need to know (and almost always to be taught)

   How the technology works - a whole new world for many

   How the program works - whole new pedagogical paradigms

   How to integrate it into their classrooms in many different situations

   Single computer for teacher led modeling

   2-3 students per computer

   Individual study in labs or at home

   How to follow up

   What to do when systems fail

   
   

CONCLUSION

A Statement of Faith: Arguably the most effective language training solution is a COMBINATION of individualized self-study and classroom follow-up

Classroom study alone, once or twice a week, is not enough to learn a language

Concentrated individual study and practice is essential

Self-study alone is generally not effective

Opportunities for task-based practice with other students and teacher is also crucial

Multimedia brings huge new challenges to publishers

High production costs

Different sales and marketing costs and channels

Rapidly changing technology and user expectations

The need to train and re-orient a whole generation of teachers

Success will favor a focus on services, not simply product

Norman Harris

Managing Director - Europe,

the Middle East & Africa

DynEd International, Inc.