Amazon account managers must have been rubbing their hands with glee upon hearing Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s announcement of California’s first-in-the nation program to replace traditional school textbooks with free online digital textbooks. This is not some vision of the future, the scheme is scheduled to commence in August of 2009. Science and Math textbooks will be replaced in the first stage with other subjects to follow.

An initial list of standards aligned digital textbooks covering subjects such as geometry, trigonometry, calculus, physics, algebra, chemistry, biology and earth science course will be released in August. A number of electronic books have already been submitted and are in the review procedure. Academic publishers and content providers have been invited to submit further materials for review by the California Learning Resources Network. The deadline for submission is June 15 to allow for review in time for the upcoming academic year.

The second phase of the initiative, currently in development, will make the new digital textbooks available for all grades. Interactive content will be incorporated and a state wide web site highlighting books available will be the long term goal.

The initiative could potentially save Californian schools millions of dollars. It’s been suggested that a school district with around 10,000 high school students could recoup $2 million dollars by using free downloadable textbooks in just science and math classes. In 2008, the State of California spent $350 million on textbooks and other printed learning material. Upon the adoption of digital textbooks a large portion of this money will become available for use in other areas.

Another advantage envisaged is that, because digital textbooks are more readily updated, it will be easier for students to learn about technological advances and current discoveries as they happen. Conventional paper textbooks tend to be updated, on average, every 6 years – which could mean that, at the back end of the cycle, students could be missing six years of information.

It also seems likely that alternative, interactive learning possibilities could be introduced once the project is underway.

Now, it’s probably worth noting that nowhere in his announcement did Governor Schwarzenegger make any reference to Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader – or any of its competitors for that matter. In fact he said that it would be possible for schools to benefit even without computers or laptops as teachers could print out the material and that would still work out considerably cheaper than a standard text book. So why is the internet buzzing about this “wonderful news” for Amazon?

Well, the newest addition to the Amazon Kindle ebook reader family, the Kindle DX, launched on June 10 – only days after Governor Schwarzenegger’s announcement. It is a larger version of Amazon’s recently released Kindle 2 but has a 9.7” screen instead of a 6” one. Amazon have touted it as being ideal for reading newspapers, magazines and – that’s right – academic textbooks.

Amazon have already entered into agreements with at least three academic publishers and some higher education establishments have publicly announced that they make the Kindle available to their students. All things considered, Amazon are currently better placed to take advantage of a sudden introduction of new digital technology in the academic world than most of their competitors.

That’s not to say that they will have it all their own way of course. Sony have partnered with Google to make Google’s huge collection of public domain ebooks available to owners of their PRS ebook reader, a clear indication that neither Google or Sony are going to yield the potentially huge and highly profitable ebook market to Amazon without a struggle. Other competitors also exist and it will be interesting to see how they react to developments in the market in general and the academic sector in particular.

In the meantime, it does seem as if Governor Schwarzenegger’s innovative plan for California’s educational future is likely to help sales of Amazon’s reader, Kindle accessories and books from Amazon’s Kindle store. If, as seems likely other states will consider similar schemes and the academic sector of the book market could heat up very quickly indeed. Of course, the academic textbook sector is just one market segment – but it does seem to be at the forefront. It also offers Amazon and its competition the perftect opportunity to “get ‘em while they’re young” and foster brand recognition and loyalty which could influence buying decisions in later life.

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