"that other Kindle forum" has a good thread going about schools adopting Kindles and getting away from heavy, expensive books that dogs like to eat. That whole idea really turns my crank and I just now sent this email to our Minister of Education with cc to our Canadian Prime Minister and various other legislators:
Hello Alberta Minister of Education Hon. Dave Hancock, QC (PC)
More and more I see reports of e-readers such as Amazon’s famous KINDLE are replacing school text books.
In my humble opinion, as a former educator at college, I think this is a terrific way to go and I hope Alberta schools follow suit very quickly.
I Googled this term:
kindle +"clearwater high school"
and found some excellent hits.
Newspaper report about Clearwater HS at
http://www.tampabay.com/news/educati...indles/1099264
Note that the stats re the Kindle mentioned in that article are very different from my $139 Kindle 3; I got a far better one than the one they refer to. Near as I can tell, mine will hold about 3,000 books; a pile 250 feet high; that is a LOT of books.
Having just bought my first Kindle 3, I am truly amazed at what it can do. In fact, I am so excited about it that I am making a website about it and it lives at
http://www.sticksite.com/kindle/ and I invite you to take a look.
The Kindle FORUMS are very helpful and this thread talks about a school district in Missouri going that way too:
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.ph...c,55012.0.html
The price of the Kindle has dropped dramatically and may come even lower; I paid $130 + shipping + $30 for a case.
E-books will, without doubt, cost a lot less and for sure are easier to carry around by students AND teachers.
A lot of educators (not all) are, I am sure, well-enough informed about what they teach that they are able to write the material so that it won’t even be necessary to buy e-books. The cost of education would drop significantly and teachers who put out WELL-WRITTEN material could be compensated with some of the savings.
What is Alberta doing to keep up with this trend?