Advanced booking: as software replaces textbooks, an N.C.-based affiliate of the Discovery Channel changes American education.

• Author: Mims, Bryan
• Position: NC TREND: Digital learning

Bill Goodwyn is disruptive in the classroom and proud of it. He's built a business model on upsetting an American school tradition observed since kids first cracked open The New England Primer in 1690. "We look at ourselves like a disruptor, the same way that a Netflix is trying to disrupt traditional TV or the same way Uber is coming in to disrupt traditional taxis," he says.

Discovery Education employs about 300, mostly former teachers, principals, superintendents and other educators, at its Charlotte headquarters. Its educational software is used in half of all U.S. classrooms and in more than 50 countries. In North Carolina, Discovery's media services are used by three-fourths of the state's school districts, including 57 that use its Techbook, a digital textbook.

Goodwyn is working to get textbooks--the kind made from pulpwood and bound in covers--out of the classroom. No more writing your name, teacher's name or school year on the inside front cover. No more stuffing a book bag with books. The division of Discovery Communications, which had 2015 revenue of $6.4 billion, has brought textbooks to the screen.

"If you think about how kids are growing up now and using technology and media, you know they're wired totally different than how we grew up," he says. "They're consuming media fundamentally different than any previous generation. So the premise is: How can we make kids more excited and engaged about learning?"

Goodwyn joined Discovery in 1987. After more than 12 years in Washington, D.C., he opened an office in Charlotte in 2000. He became president of Discovery Education in 2007, and later was named CEO. His division launched the Techbook, which features video clips, hands-on activities and virtual labs. The technology works with any laptop or tablet...