We have discussed in our ebook the incredible flexibility that comes with homeschooling. There are also many other advantages to homeschooling, such as building familial bonds, being obedient to God’s charge to fathers in Ephesians 6:14, the lack of bullying issues in many schools (even private schools), and, these days, the risk that some crazy person might use a school to get their name in the history books by shooting the place up.

What I have not spent a lot of time discussing is the advantages of using a digital curriculum to homeschool. So let’s do a deep dive into a digital curriculum as opposed to a paper-based one.

Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1393–1406 – 3 February 1468) was a German craftsman who invented the movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press enabled a much faster rate of printing. The printing press later spread across the world, leading to an information revolution and the unprecedented mass dissemination of literature throughout Europe. It had a profound impact on the development of both good (Renaissance, Reformation) and bad (humanist, feminist) movements. From Gutenberg’s original press all the way until the creation of the internet, paper ruled supreme! In many ways, it still does. However, with the advent of the internet, the final piece of the puzzle was in place for the eventual unraveling of the dominance of the printed word, a transition that the world is still in the process of making. However, many are not keen on the specific advantages that we now enjoy, so let us discuss them specifically here as they relate to the field of education.

The issue of editions. I have discussed this before in our ebook, which you can get for free by subscribing to our newsletter below, and while there are ethical issues, there are some legitimate reasons for publishers to come out with new editions from time to time. First of all, publishers change editions because mandated state and/or federal standards require them to change the contents of their textbooks. There are issues with this, of course, where textbook publishers’ associations often lobby for these changes themselves. This provides them with plausible deniability for their many new editions, where they can say, “The government made us do it.” What the consumer does not know is that they lobbied for this very thing to sell more books by obsolescence. Not all publishers are in on this scam, but enough are to force all to have to go along with it, whether they want to or not. Homeschooling is not necessarily affected by this, but many homeschoolers are affected if they use a paper-based curriculum. While there are no regulations directly mandating curriculum standards for homeschoolers, publishers who have to make a new edition to comply with the new laws often change their homeschooling curricula as well, since it makes sense from a business perspective to have everything consistent, and they are making the changes anyway because they are required to do so. A digital curriculum never needs to republish a new edition because the changes can be made and distributed almost instantaneously. Since there are no regulations mandating such changes, a digital homeschool curriculum has nothing to comply with and may do as they see as best. This makes for a more affordable circumstance for the consumer, and the publisher is free to just make corrections as needed.

The issue of corrections. One other valid reason for republishing is to correct errors in the curriculum. Yes, even educators make mistakes. So sometimes it becomes necessary to resolve issues of accuracy. There is a very valid reason for changing a textbook; however, there are challenges with a paper-based format. The main problem is that paper, once printed, is permanent. So new book corrections have to be redesigned, republished, reshipped, and redistributed. This process is very expensive. With a digital curriculum, a correction can simply be input into the computer and, with the push of a digital button, published and distributed to the world in almost an instant. No printing presses to run, no redesign, no distribution chain, and all that comes along with that. Corrections may also come in the form of suggestions. So the consumer can have direct input into the content itself. Let’s say a consumer of a curriculum notices a math error in the curriculum. All they have to do is contact the digital publisher (email, forums) and make a note of the error. The digital publisher can confirm the error and make the change in that one place, and everyone instantly gets the new correction. No need to publish a new entire book. In a paper-based format, often corrections do not come out until they have had enough corrections to justify creating a new corrected book, which might mean years. But with digital publishing, the time from feedback to implementation and distribution of a correction is possibly as little as a few minutes. This is not a full-on crowd-sourced curriculum nor AI-based, which I do not advocate for various reasons, but it does allow far more input from the end consumer than a paper-based curriculum ever could.

Which brings us to the issue of input. One other valid reason for publishers to come out with new editions is that they are improving the quality of their methods or content. I would, however, caution you that not all “improvements” are necessarily so, or you might disagree that a change was in fact an improvement at all. However, the process for improving a curriculum in a paper-based system is done with very little input from the consumers of the product. Some things can be done, but by and large, most consumers never get a say in what changes occur. This is where the reduction in the barrier between consumers and the digital publisher really shines. Not only can corrections be made rapidly, but suggestions can also be added just as rapidly. So let’s say a homeschool mom using a paper curriculum has an idea to do something a little different or an idea not found in the curriculum. Great, she is free to use her idea with her children all she likes, and if it’s a good idea, then more power to her. But how does that help anyone else? That fact is that it does not. But if she were using a digital curriculum and she had a great illustration idea, she could share it (forums) with others, and if it proves beneficial, it can easily be integrated by the digital publisher as part of the curriculum itself. In this way, her great idea benefits everyone, not just her kids. This level of input is just not possible with a paper-based curriculum.

To use an illustration, just as a relatively inexpensive scientific calculator has replaced large volumes of hundred-year-old texts that contain tables of logarithmic and trigonometric functions, and slide rules with paper and pencil, so too is digitally publishing curriculum replacing the printed page.

Education amounts to disseminating knowledge from teacher to student. Curriculum exists as a help for that process. Digital curriculum breaks down the barriers between consumer and publisher and “greases the skids” to make curriculum far more consumer-friendly in ways that paper can not. This gives the consumer far greater input and makes the curriculum far more affordable for the homeschooling family. If you are a one-income family, because one parent is homeschooling, then a digital curriculum is a very budget-friendly alternative compared to the thousands of dollars that many are paying for a paper-based curriculum every year.