An admittedly semi-biased post but it makes some very good points:
“I think that reading the right books is the best way to get a great education.
To salvage the failing US education system we should do whatever it takes to get millions of kids reading great books once again.
I think the best way to do that would be for states to purchase Kindles for every student (I’d say 7th-12th grade) in their education system, and to provide great age appropriate books for these students every year”
Paul Allen
“For the longest time, distribution of reading materials has been highly inefficient in getting the right material to the right student at the right moment,”
Students provided with Kindles, which can hold some 1,500 digital books, can simply download the copies they need, without burdening a school’s media center, [Daniel] Witz says.”
“Kindle in Education – Pros and Cons
Kindle in Education Pros
1.It gets kids to read more.
2.It helps inculcate a love of reading – hence the need to do it early.
3.There are no distractions i.e. laptops, iPhones, etc. have lots of games and other distractions.
4.Cost of a Kindle isn’t huge when you consider what schools spend per student.
5.It cuts the price of books.
6.It increases portability and cuts down the weight of backpacks.
7.Text to Speech feature is great for kids with dyslexia and other learning disabilities.
8.It makes things convenient.
9.It blends into the background.
10.Free Internet and Free Wikipedia.
Kindle in Education Cons
Some of these can be interpreted as feature requests.
1.The breakable screen. This is a big concern when considering school children.
2.Doesn’t have an output to transmit screen to projectors and computers. This is an education specific drawback.
3.The limitation of 6 Kindles on 1 account. Not a drawback in my opinion but teachers feel this is a con.
4.The proprietary format.
5.Not enough personalization of learning.
6.The biggest immediate hurdle is the $259 cost.”
I’d add that colour is very important for most educational texts.
The time for eBooks in the K-12 educational setting is coming.
Stephen
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Free Blioreader software, available for PCs and mobiles soon, Macs and libraries later in 2010, has colour. May be great for children’s books, cookbooks and academic / tech materials.