The Amazon Kindle In Education
According to The New Democratic Leadership Council – a Washington think tank formed in’85 – every one of America’s 56 million K-12 schoolchildren should be supplied with an electronic book reader of some type. In a paper entitled “A Kindle In Every Backpack”, authored by Thomas Z Freedman, it is suggested that this would cut costs and allow for texts which are constantly updated.
Governement spending on traditional printed textbooks currently runs at $109 per student. According to Mr. Freedman’s report the initial costs for the provision of electronic readers would be around $200 currently, dropping to $80 per student by 2012.
Just who would fund the initiative is not clearly defined in the paper – but it seems likely that the government would be expected to foot the bill.
The report suggests that the benefits of such a scheme would include the ability to keep academic textbooks constantly updated, the possibility of interactive educational programs (including tests and quizes) and the fact that students would have a lot less weight to carry about with them. No mention is made of environmental issues in the report, but the amount of paper consumed on an annual basis by the academic textbook industry would be hugely reduced.
The Amazon Kindle ebook reader is mentioned several times throughout the report – but the possibility of using other brands is also noted. One potential problem with the present Kindle reader could be the suitability of its screen for rough handling. There is currently a class action suit raised against Amazon regarding cracking face plates and screens. This seems mostly concerned with Kindles which have had covers fitted to them and may not represent any flaw in the device itself.
Nevertheless, it seems improbable that school children would take better care of their Kindles than adult users who have paid for their devices. Possibly a more rugged version, suited to the knocks and bumps that might accrue during the course of the school year, might be a good idea.
There appears to be a growing air of inevitablity concerning the move to electronic textbooks. Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently announced that his state would begin to provide free electronic textbooks for students in August 2009. Although the Californian initiative does not specifically mention the Kindle, Amazon’s marketing team must have been pleased both with the announcement and the time frame for implementation. Pilot partnerships between Amazon and a number of colleges, universities and academic publishers are already in place. It looks more a case of “when” rather than “if” electronic textbooks will become commonplace.
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