Ebook Adoption in Schools...will it happen?

[MatthewM]

I just wanted to chip in a slight variation on this theme. We don't have any ebook readers, but I've had some good luck in turning some of my students onto dailyreader.net. It delivers books over email, so it kind of sneaks the reading into the normal day of the kids that spend all their time on the computer.

That said, I'd love if we could budget in readers for all the kids but I just don't see it happening.

[Ervserver]

I could see readers customized for educational use. A school could have a wireless network and send assignments and other info directly to everyone's reader.

[brecklundin]

These are what I am talking about...great idea's and love the idea of Scholastic books. I remember then since the 2nd grade when we used to get catalogs periodically as students. We could order books directly through the school. They were inexpensive around 50¢ to maybe a buck. I would typically order about $10 ( a LOT for an 7/8 year old kid back in 1968/1969ish...) and it got to the point my teacher would end up just giving me a catalog because I was the only kid who bought books.

I know they are MUCH bigger now, in no small part due the their publishing the Harry Potter books in the US...what a titanium nugget was that decision??!!

But yes, these are the ideas i was looking for...using the simple tech to create a super flexible learning tool.

It had not dawned on me to know that with yearly licensing students would actually have NEW text books every year.

One function I would see as a necessity would be the ability to hand write notes in your book, extract key points into some form of outlining software and the ability to print out (or via email) notes/pages & outlines to be used for reviews. Though with a keyboard like interface on the Kindle that could work well enough in the first few generations and keep costs lower. Over time a Wacom type overlay can be incorporated to allow hand written notes or even OCR).

All of this is how I could see these very simple tools to improve our educational system. Think of schools that have almost no funds for new books. Under such a system, since school district wide licenses would be there, all an individual school needs do is setup the needed books for the auto download soon as the device is activated.

I see issues of some of the more predatory kids selling the device for cash and then claiming they lost it...well, some rather draconian rules might be required there...

But as these devices become more invasive I could see the ability to carry a library of your textbooks for your entire lifetime. And yes, an additional licensing issue to allow students to retain certain books longer term would need to be addressed. But it should be low cost as the schools would have already paid a subsidy with their original license agreement.

I have to say I have been using EVDO over the Sprint network for a couple weeks now...it is AMAZING. I could see that as a key component to the devices. It could be offered almost free to students with some limited access to sites but would let them do some research as well as to explore learning in greater depth should they have the interest. I am sure access technology will change significantly but if the connectivity is made modular then a change in connectivity will be as easy and switching out a module in a few moments.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by MatthewM

I just wanted to chip in a slight variation on this theme. We don't have any ebook readers, but I've had some good luck in turning some of my students onto dailyreader.net. It delivers books over email, so it kind of sneaks the reading into the normal day of the kids that spend all their time on the computer.

That said, I'd love if we could budget in readers for all the kids but I just don't see it happening.

LOVE that dailyreader site!! Nice way to, as you say, sneak some reading materials into a kids daily routine.

I actually can see schools finding a way to use ereaders and buy them letting parents pay a small amount every month/annually to help defray the costs. Say, $50/yr or whatever for a couple years. ALmost every family would be able to afford this cost. Initially though I could only see pilot programs fully subsuduzed by publishers/device makers. And that is only because of few titles being available and, well, people do not fully understand the devices yet. But the mfg & publishers benefit simply by imprinting kids on using a reader as a part of daily life. Far better than their PSP & cell phones. Heck even add so sort of chat/text messaging to the devices over the school's internal net or even via http...