Now class, open your book to page...

Houghton Mifflin Co., the Boston textbook publisher is exploring new ways of presenting content and information. The written word isn’t enough anymore. Partly to convey lessons to a generation that grew up on video games and MTV, Houghton Mifflin has used a variety of information techniques to develop a fourth-grade science textbook that’s complemented by CD-ROMs, DVDs, and special websites.

‘‘This is the first integrated science textbook we’ve done,’’ said Ali Sullo, senior vice president and publisher of Houghton Mifflin’s school division. ‘‘The goal is to make the book accessible to all levels of learners.’’

Developing products in the $4.5 billion textbook industry may be more challenging than ever. Many states have recently set course standards that publishers must meet. Student populations are more diverse, with many students speaking English as a second language.

Textbooks must also capture the attention of children raised on GameBoys and videos.

‘‘The bar has been raised by the entertainment industry,’’ said Saul Griffith, a cofounder of the Howtoons project when he was at MIT’s Media Lab.

A Howtoon is a one-page, story-driven cartoon that instructs students on how to do a science project. ‘‘You have to compete for eyeballs and attention,’’ he said.

New technology isn’t just about competing for attention; it’s also about enriching the learning experience. Research has found that different children learn in different ways, said Stephen Driesler, executive director of the school division of the Association of American Publishers. Some students learn best by reading; others by hearing a lesson. For still others, ‘‘a picture is worth a thousand words,’’ Driesler said. ‘‘And some need all three. They need to see, hear, and read.’’

A textbook packed with graphics and complemented by websites and DVDs can reach students on several levels, he said.

Houghton Mifflin was aware of such thinking in 2001 when the firm began developing a textbook that will debut next year. A small team was assigned to sketch out a preliminary draft. Over time, the team grew to more than 100 editors and writers and another 40 staff members specializing as website design, CD-ROM development, and DVD production.

A decade ago, many textbooks mimicked the narrative techniques of magazines, weaving words and pictures together to carry a story line. But today’s students find bouncing back and forth between text and imagery distracting. The latest thinking is to have some separation between images and text.

Today’s science textbooks are a far cry from the old days, when they were mainly information presentations requiring students to do lots of memorization, said Diane Jass Ketelhut, a science teacher earning a doctoral degree at Harvard Graduate School of Education. ‘‘You memorized parts of the flower. You memorized parts of the human body. Unfortunately, that’s not what scientists do. What they do is ask inquiry-based questions.’’

To encourage inquiry, Houghton Mifflin’s new textbook includes about 40 investigations, or lab experiments. The book comes with DVDs of students performing these investigations. Teachers can show the DVDs to their classes before or after their classes tackle an investigation.

Whether text or DVD, the subliminal message is that ‘‘you, too, can be a scientist,’’ said Kirby A. Mansfield, the company’s editor in chief for mathematics, science, and instructional technology.

To complement the textbook, Houghton Mifflin designed special pages for its website. On the Web, students might see animated simulations that underscore such lessons as how bats use sound to find insects and avoid objects in the dark. Many Web pages are meant for what Houghton Mifflin describes as ‘‘students ready for a challenge.’’

For textbook companies, the challenge is to figure out how to offer such extras and still make money, said Gerry Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association.

‘‘One textbook publisher told me: ‘I’m bleeding to death on these ancillary things. They’re not profits; they’re expenses,’’’ he said.

The association has developed something called SciLinks. Searching the Internet, the association’s teachers have found websites they deem appropriate for students. Students visit a special association website and indicate what textbook they’re using; they’re then directed to approved websites that reinforce their book’s lessons.

A good textbook can be an invaluable tool for new teachers, and much of the development process for Houghton Mifflin’s textbook involved extensive interviews and focus groups with teachers.

But many teachers prefer to customize their lessons from multiple sources available on the Internet and elsewhere. In Brookline, for example, teachers are encouraged to use their creativity in preparing lessons and selecting source material, said Jennifer Fischer-Mueller, deputy superintendent for teaching and learning for the Brookline public schools.

Houghton Mifflin plans to sell its full textbook for $44.79. Its six units can be purchased separately for $11.97 each.

Tomorrow’s students may get educational content in many different ways. ‘‘Future media are likely to be more personal and narrow-cast, more immersive and mobile, and available to end-customers in any format of our choice at the time of our choosing,’’ Joost Paul Bonsen, a Howtoons cofounder, wrote in an e-mail.

At the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Christopher Dede, a professor of learning technologies, has experimented with computer games as teaching tools. In one, students became fictional characters in ‘‘River City,’’ a 19th-century city with a public health crisis. To end the crisis, students have to draw on their knowledge of biology and ecology.

The next generation of textbooks and learning programs could have ‘‘links to emerging technologies like blogs and podcasts,’’ Dede said. ‘‘This is speculation, but if I’m bored listening to heavy metal on my iPod, I might download my homework.’’