Publisher enters new chapter in textbooks

Instead, Houghton will be providing a computer-based teaching system it developed with Microsoft Corp. that will connect teachers, students, and administrators. It’s a radical shift away from the classic textbook publishing model and represents an industry transformation, as technology supplants books.

“The textbook is no longer the center of the educational universe,’’ said Wendy Colby, a senior vice president at Houghton, which is based in Boston.

The Boston publisher is selling some textbooks to Detroit, but most of the contract is for such software such as Learning Village - a customized, interactive classroom network.

Detroit’s teachers will be able to prepare and assign homework through Learning Village and use its tools to measure how well students learn - even how well they understand a lesson taught earlier in the day.

“I wanted one central portal that everybody can tap into,’’ said Barbara Byrd-Bennett, chief academic officer for Detroit public schools.

The switch to electronic teaching tools is driven in part by school systems that want to prepare students for a digital world and by the availability of federal stimulus money for such programs.

“Textbook sales are definitely down,’’ said Judi Mathis Johnson, assistant professor in the Technology in Education program at Lesley University in Cambridge. “Already, a few school systems have said, ‘We’re locking up the textbooks. We’re only looking at digital products from now on.’ ’’

Houghton competitor Pearson Education is also selling more software to schools.

“It’s been increasing dramatically every year,’’ said Peter Cohen, chief executive of Pearson’s US curriculum division in Boston. “Now, we don’t offer any of our textbook programs without a digital companion.’’

Last August, for example, when Pearson sold a reading program to Boston public schools, the textbooks came with a “digital path’’ that allows students and teachers to connect, via the Web, to a wide variety of companion programs.

“We are now in a transformational period. Everything we have has to be two worlds: print and digital,’’ Cohen said. “The future of learning is going to be high-quality online material and, to a lesser extent, textbooks.’’

The education publishing industry is being swept up in the swing toward digital products, which has accelerated in recent months, thanks partly to the availability of federal stimulus funds.

In September, for example, the school system in Bakersfield, Calif., launched a version of Learning Village after signing a $600,000 contract with Houghton. The community was able to get $350,000 in federal stimulus grants to help pay for the system.

“The digital transformation of textbook publishers has really picked up steam,’’ said Kathy Mickey, senior analyst and managing editor of the Education Group at Simba Information, a media industry market intelligence firm. “It’s much more than just e-book versions of textbooks. It’s companion videos, interactive games, assessment, curriculum planning tools, and on and on and on.’’

It’s also changing the relationship between schools and publishers. It’s one thing to discard a paper text; it’s more difficult for a school district to walk away from a computer system on which teachers and students depend.

A product such as Learning Village, Mickey said, “puts the publisher at the center of school action. It ties the school district to the publisher.’’

Houghton, which traces its origins back to 1832, has in recent years focused on kindergarten through high school. It now claims to be the largest publisher of educational materials for prekindergarten through grade 12.

The company has had three owners in the past 10 years.

It’s now owned by educational software company Riverdeep Group of Ireland, which has helped the venerable New England publishing house to adapt quickly to new technologies. All of the company’s textbooks - more than 2,000 - are now available in digital form. The company also has a high-tech development center in Dublin that employs 210 people.

“In many ways, Houghton and Riverdeep are well-positioned to take advantage of this trend,’’ Lesley University’s Johnson said. “Houghton has very good classroom-tested products, and Riverdeep has always had a digital, online focus.’’

The challenge, Johnson said, will be in training teachers on the new Houghton systems.

In a five-year study in the public schools of St. Lucie County, Fla., the publisher found that once teachers became proficient in using Learning Village, student performance improved.

“It took a while to get teachers trained on the system,’’ said St. Lucie assistant superintendent Owen A. Roberts. “But eventually, we were able to take advantage of the fact that everything was in one accessible place.’’

Detroit is hoping for similar results.

“I was looking for an approach that brought everything together into a unified portal, and that’s what we’re getting,’’ said Detroit’s Byrd-Bennett. “Books are still important, but in the future, school systems like ours are going to be looking for more from digital technology.’’

D.C. Denison can be reached at denison@globe.com.