Semblio Platform for Education Applications

Semblio, a new Microsoft platform for creating and assembling interactive educational materials, such as electronic books and multimedia presentations, attempts to meet the growing need for interactive materials in education while bolstering demand for Microsoft software in the education market. The platform began its rollout in Feb. 2009 with a free SDK for developers. Two other components—a tool for compiling interactive materials from different types of sources and a Semblio viewer—will be released with the next version of Office, code-named Office 14 and expected in late 2009 or early 2010.

Because Textbooks Are Not Enough

Semblio, formerly code-named Grava, was created to serve the increasing demand in the educational market for interactive coursework and presentations. According to Microsoft’s estimates, more than 30% of school districts in the United States in 2010 will spend at least a quarter of their budget on digital content, up from 8% in 2006.

This move toward digital content is being driven in part by students (and parents), who expect course materials to have a similar level of interactivity as common entertainment content, such as video and social-networking Web sites and video games. It’s also important to educational publishers and vendors, who have found that free Internet resources such as Wikipedia are becoming commodity replacements for traditional textbooks; multimedia educational materials offer added value and are harder to duplicate.