Education is the largest market for books, non-fiction is the second largest and fiction is the third largest. Ebook markets, however, started developing from fiction, but behind the scenes, plenty of digital innovation has already taken place in educational institutions. That’s what the survey of educational market by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt also indicates: 97% of educators in the U.S. are already using digital material for teaching.

The survey HMH Educator Confidence Report was conducted by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH). The publisher surveyed over 1,000 teachers and school and district administrators across the United States for the report. Here are some highlights.

The most common digital resources educators used were:
– Free/open-educational resources (used by 71% of respondents) and videos (66%)
– Digital versions of instructional materials and interactive whiteboards (both 54%)
– Apps, websites and digital games (51%).

Almost all educators surveyed (97%) use some form of digital content.
More than 50% use apps, websites or games in classrooms.
Two-thirds, however, cite infrequent use of digital tools for various learning purposes, with only 23% using the most prevalent form of classroom technology on a daily basis.
58% of educators are either “very” or “somewhat” concerned about student data privacy.

Educational markets haven’t gone unnoticed by leading companies in the ebook business. Amazon, Apple and Google all have similar targets: build a system that lets schools deploy a comprehensive digital learning environment. Teachers create educational material themselves into the system or purchase it from a bookstore. They distribute the material to students via the system and control licensing. Amazon Whispercast, Apple iTunes U, and Google Play for Education are taking their first steps in the educational market, but there will be plenty of development in this field in the coming years.

Popular ebooks used by educators across the world are, for instance, Discussion on Electricity (an introduction to electricity and magnetism) and Creo Parametric User Guide (a tutorial for 3D planning, modeling and milling).