In the eighties, publishers and media companies talked incessantly about synergy among their various products. Disney was (and remains) a master – movies begat toys and amusement rides while amusement rides begat movies, costumes, more toys and books.  Creating content was expensive and profits were much better when that content could be re-purposed in as many ways for as many potential audiences as possible. But throughout that period and until lately, such efforts focused on the trade and consumer markets. Now the New York Times alerts us to developments in the latest hot market for media companies – the K-12 classroom.

The textbook is becoming the Techbook according to the Discovery Channel.  Yes, the cable regular (and News Corp) is moving beyond streaming video to creating a variety of highly interactive texts designed to engage students and expand market share. Reporters Brooks Barnes and Amy Chozick tell us that given the declining revenues of media companies, “Education is emerging as an answer, largely because executives see a way to capitalize on the changes that technology is bringing to classrooms — turnabout as fair play, given the way that the Web has upended major media’s own business models.”

Every year at this time, many college and university campuses come to life after a fairly dormant summer. Hundreds, and in some places thousands, of new first years or frosh begin their journey toward a baccalaureate degree. Increasingly those students will arrive having experienced years of a digitally-enhanced (or at least infused) educational experience that will no longer be evident once they matriculate to higher learning. The disconnect between cable channel versions of a high school textbook and one that has been authored by a faculty member for a university seminar is going to loom very large indeed.