The development of digital textbooks has gone through three generations.

Digital textbooks have gone through three stages of development from the electrochemical textbooks of the 1950s and 1960s to the deep integration with information technology.

The first stage: the digitalization of paper textbooks stage, "digital" and the simple combination of textbooks, the content of paper textbooks to electronic devices, and paper textbooks are only different forms. Teaching content in text and pictures presented to teachers and students, digital textbooks are dispensable existence, it involves the subject is not comprehensive, the teaching content is the same as the paper textbooks, only the carrier of knowledge is different, generally paper textbooks supporting information, as supplementary information, auxiliary information and use. Its teaching effect has no advantage over paper textbooks, on the contrary, it will bring negative impact on students and increase the burden of teachers, so it has not been emphasized and has not been promoted in primary and secondary schools.

The second stage: multimedia, the organic integration of paper textbooks and multimedia resources, incorporating video, audio, animation and other non-linear resources. With preliminary interactivity, the content is relatively extended, mainly limited to the articulation within the discipline, and has a greater impact on China's basic education. The R&D mode is relatively mature, and the number of publications is as large as the scale.

The third stage: personalization stage, with rich media, digital textbooks and the deep integration of cutting-edge technology. First, with the emergence of big data, artificial intelligence, VR virtual and other cutting-edge technologies, making digital textbooks more interactive. Secondly, digital textbooks give full consideration to the needs of teachers and students in various aspects, such as physical and mental, and the roles of teachers and students in the classroom have changed to better play the role of the student body and the teacher's leading role. At the same time, digital textbooks cover a wider range of content, interdisciplinary and cross-field has become the norm. The learning of knowledge breaks the boundaries of disciplines and grades, broadens the sources of information acquisition for learners, and the presentation of knowledge is more systematic and the integration of disciplines is stronger, which helps to extend the breadth and depth of learning for learners.