• Kindle in the classroom?

    Aug 12.09 | Learn   

    As a recent recipient of a Kindle birthday present I’m starting to like it.  It is really convenient and perfect for a rabid reader such as myself.  But is it ready for the classroom? Should we be moving wholesale to dump old fashioned print books and replace them with sexy new eReaders?  A couple of thoughts:

    • What is the role of textbooks in a modern, active learning environment?  Is an eReader version of a textbook actually an education advance, or is it just new technology perpetuating an old, broken education model?
    • Is vendor lock-in with a service like Amazon a good thing?  I argue it is not.  What I’d love to see is Amazon release some type of open-source server, which would allow the hosting of alternative Kindle bookshelf sites.  As a Kindle user I’d update my Amazon settings so that when I purchase a book it was sent to this alternative server.  And other services could also put books there.  This would allow the school to add/remove/update books and readings on their students’ virtual bookshelves.
    • Color is going to be the killer feature — grey scale is OK, but I am carefully evaluating what books I choose for the Kindle, recognizing that for many much of the book experience will be lost as an ebook.  Support for multi-media will be important too.
    • The Kindle’s note taking capabilities is good, but the ability to share annotations with a group is essential — maybe that would be a feature of this open-source Kindle server platform?

    And if we’re going to obsess on hardware, let’s give a serious look at the iPod touch:  it runs the same Apps (mostly) as the iPhone, but doesn’t need phone service, just wi-fi; it is relatively cheap; it can access ebooks;  it already displays color and  multimedia; kids love it; now if it wasn’t for that darn vendor lock-in it would be perfect.

    I downloaded the group’s report and transferred it to my Kindle.  Oddly enough it doesn’t translate very well, and I don’t see a version available for purchase (or free download)  in the Amazon store.  Now that looks like an oversight!

    DLC_Freedman_Kindle_0709.pdf (application/pdf Object)

    Democratic Group’s Proposal: Give Each Student a Kindle – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com

    Some influential members of the Democratic Party want to give electronic reading devices to every student in the country.  Amazon.com should like the name of their proposal: “A Kindle in Every Backpack: A Proposal for eTextbooks in American Schools,” by the Democratic Leadership Council, a left-leaning think tank,

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    • Author: Randy

    In my day job I serve as Information Technology Director for the Yale School of Drama. Otherwise I garden, play guitar, build stuff out of wood, take photos, play around with technology and have been blogging since 2003.

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    Comments / ONE COMMENT

    I know loads of Kindle and DX owners are a bit annoyed that it’s still hard to find many publishers that offer proper textbooks for student owners like me. I just found this site a few weeks ago though, http://www.bookboon.com and these guys publish a huge range of textbooks and every single textbook is made available to download free of charge in a compatible pdf e-book format with no registration. It’s a totally 100% free textbook solution perfect for new Kindle owners like me looking for good and free academic content!

    They actually just put up a new accounting series, really good used the ones on Liabilities and Equity and Balanced Scorecard this year as prep for my acca exams. There is also a facebook app with all the books on, http://apps.facebook.com/bookboon Check it out guys…

    Edward added these pithy words on Aug 14 09 at 5:23 am

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Randall Rode's online home for thoughts, notes, and experiments with a wide range of technology topics. Visit the about page for info on my recent projects and professional background. I welcome your comments!

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