Digital Content Lifts Weight Off Students' Backs and Financial Strain from District Budgets
CDW-G Helps Districts Transition from Costly Print Textbooks to Digital Materials and Reap Unexpected Rewards

VERNON HILLS, Ill. – June 14, 2010 – CDW Government LLC (CDW-G), a leading source of Information Technology (IT) solutions to educators and governments, today announced its work with three districts to help students and teachers implement digital content programs and transition away from costly, traditional textbooks that weigh down backpacks, clog lockers and strain district budgets.

"Campbell Union High School District, Lorain City Schools and Hunterdon Central School District are prime examples of how districts can use digital content to alleviate stressed budgets and technological gaps and still help students learn," said Bob Kirby, vice president, K-12 education, CDW-G. "Increased publisher support of digital content is coming at a time when small school budgets and increased achievement demands have administrators looking for ways to extend every dollar. CDW-G is helping schools use the technology and digital content to save precious budget dollars."

Recent research by the Association of Educational Publishers confirms that many publishers are shifting their resources away from print. The December 2009 study found that 40 percent of publishers are repurposing content for digital platforms, up from 25 percent in 2008.

Lorain City Schools (Lorain, Ohio)
An inner-city school district with out-of-date textbooks, a wide technology gap at school and at home and a large budget deficit proved a challenging environment for a pilot program in digital content and one-to-one computing. Despite those challenges, Lorain City Schools Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson and her team understood that technology integration in education is essential to students' future success.

"Technology skills are absolutely necessary for our students to be successful in the workplace," Atkinson said. "Providing students with Acer netbooks and digital content has improved their grades and brought parental participation to a level that I have not seen in an urban environment – to say nothing of the substantial cost savings."

The pilot program at Lorain City Schools, which began with grades six, nine and 10, has expanded to span grades six through 11 and 4,700 students. "Teachers' fear of technology is gone," Atkinson said. "Professional development has helped our teachers capitalize on new technologies in the classroom, and ongoing dialogue with students ensures that we stay ahead of the curve."

Working with CDW-G, the district was able to image the netbooks and ensure that students had access to the district's catalog of digital content. Atkinson explained that the district had three driving goals: provide students with a solid foundation of technology, provide equal access to that technology and replace its textbooks with a more flexible option. "CDW-G's expertise with one-to-one programs and hardware vendors was instrumental in identifying the right solution to achieve those goals," Atkinson noted.

Campbell Union High School District (San Jose, Calif.)
Campbell Union High School District began its digital content pilot in January 2010 with 260 Sony Readers in its English, English as a second language and special education courses.

"First we quantified the true cost of textbooks, including replacement costs, to develop a baseline on which to evaluate the move to digital content," said Charles Kanavel, technology director, Campbell Union High School District. "Our original goal was to reduce our spending on textbooks, which we were able to do."

The district, which serves 7,500 high school students, quickly discovered many unexpected educational advantages to digital content. "Print textbooks provide students with a basic set of material needed to complete their assigned courses," Kanavel explained. "E-readers take education to a new level by allowing students to download supplemental content at will, regardless of the subject or grade level."

While the district is still in the early phases of implementation, it is already planning to expand its pilot to other courses. "With the high price of history and science textbooks, we are planning to incorporate those subjects next," Kanavel said. "We anticipate that additional digital content will show significant cost savings."

Hunterdon Central School District (Flemington, NJ)
The first investment Hunterdon Central School District made into a shift towards digital content was not the purchase of netbooks. In fact, the pilot program of 600 students was the culmination of five years of professional development geared toward shifting the way the district's teachers learned.

"The foundation of our pilot program lies in professional development," said Rob Mancabelli, director of information systems, Hunterdon Central. "The Internet and Web 2.0 technologies have changed teaching and learning compared to just 10 or 15 years ago. As a result of this colossal shift, we are retraining our teachers to learn in a digital environment. Only then can they begin to teach students using those tools."

With the new pedagogical base firmly laid, Hunterdon Central distributed the 600 netbooks to students in September 2009. To ensure that the district fully understood the impact of the program, the district included a cross-section of students in general education, special education and advanced placement (AP) courses and a wide-range of subjects and grades.

To measure students' progress, the district is utilizing benchmarks to assess problem solving, critical thinking and communication skills and student initiative. "Since implementing the digital content program, students have markedly improved in all of the benchmark areas," Mancabelli said. "In response to the pilot's success, we are planning to expand the pilot program and eventually develop a model that includes all of the district's 3,200 students."

"The knowledge and attention that CDW-G provides its customers goes beyond delivering hardware and software at a reasonable price," Mancabelli added. "CDW-G offers purchasing advice that takes the district's specific goals and resources into consideration. Our partnership has been invaluable during our district's conversion to digital content."

Graduating to Digital Content
CDW-G and its customers offer schools the following recommendations on moving to digital content:

• Invest in professional development to ensure that teachers understand how the technology can be utilized in the learning environment, reinforcing their commitment to the overall program
• Establish student learning benchmarks and test students both pre- and post-pilot launch
• Quantify your textbook costs and use that information when considering the device and e-content costs
• Establish good relationships with your textbook publishers

About CDW-G
A wholly owned subsidiary of CDW LLC, ranked No. 41 on Forbes' list of America's Largest Private Companies, CDW Government LLC (CDW-G) is a leading provider of technology solutions for federal, state and local government agencies, as well as educational institutions at all levels. The company features dedicated account managers who help customers choose the right technology products and services to meet their needs. The company's technology specialists and engineers offer expertise in designing customized solutions, while its advanced technology engineers can assist customers with the implementation and long-term management of those solutions. Areas of focus include notebooks, desktops, printers, servers and storage, unified communications, security, wireless, power and cooling, networking, software licensing and mobility solutions.

For more information about CDW-G product offerings, procurement options, service and solutions, call 1.800.808.4239, email cdwgsales@cdwg.com or visit the CDW-G Web site at CDWG.com.