Gilbane Research Report - Digital Magazine Editions - (Page 54) Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: Best Practice Cases Results Teachers use the content frequently despite technology limitations. Some teachers have to make transparencies of newspaper content, while others use more modern projection equipment. Digital subscriptions are now used by 2,500 teachers and make up 7% of the total educational subscriptions. That number is growing rapidly despite issues with slow data connections and firewall issues. The digital deliveries to schools saved the Denver News Agency $466,000 in 2006, and savings in 2007 were expected to surpass $750,000. Teachers can create a customized “My Paper” to cover the topics that they consider to have the greatest educational value. Teachers like the search and save capability and the ease of creating proper citations. Because some teachers have limited technology skills, the agency has set up a separate support desk for the education program. Ms. Plewka is hoping to implement these enhancements over the next few years: o o o o Developing additional rich media to capture student interest. Adding more authoritative links to help students safely explore topics found in the digital edition. Allowing students to create their own custom versions. Generating provocative emails and RSS feeds to educators to suggest ways to use the digital edition every day. “The Green Movement” is gaining support and is a reason for schools to move from paper to digital editions. The Denver News Agency now has over 16,000 digital subscribers. Lessons Learned The range of technical skills and acumen among educators is very broad. It is challenging to provide content and features that are both stimulating and very easy to use. Students actually expect more technical sophistication than some teachers. One drawback of a digital edition is lack of a physical presence in the classroom. This issue can be overcome by generating email pedagogical suggestions and targeted RSS feeds. The savings in paper, ink, and delivery are significant. Research shows that students who read newspapers do better on standardized achievement tests. Gilbane Group Conclusions: Attracting young readers is critical to the future health of the newspaper industry, and digital editions in the classroom are a good first step. ©2008 Gilbane Group, Inc. 54 http://gilbane.com http://gilbane.com
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