[CarolynBG]

Thanks for all the advice... I do appreciate all the ideas people have!

Originally Posted by chas0039

Keeping them unregistered should not violate any Amazon rules, as far as I can tell. The only issue you would have would have to do with DRM problems if you are using books from Amazon. If that is the case, I would register them to the same account, load all the books you want, and then de-register so the Kindle is safe for the kids (they won't be able to use your account to buy something). I am not sure about how you are doing this and what books or active content you will be buying, or the source for your books so I can't be sure of how to do this. More details will help. Also, Amazon has a maximum for the number of Kindles you can attache to a single book purchase so you might want to check this out with them. If they are in your community, Target usually has a strong community support for local schools so you could check with them to see if they have any better deals. If you use the Red Card, you get 5% off right away and they may do more. You could also set up some type of sale of the used Kindles at the end of the study to recoup costs. Also, there is a very low cost leather case on eBay ($13) let me know if you need a link.

The idea behind this is that the kids take the Kindles home and (hopefully) use the Kindle for their at home own-choice reading instead of regular books during the time they have the Kindles -- so we will be constantly loading new books from the books I buy -- in another thread someone brought up the idea of deregistering the Kindles after loading them, but I think that having to re-register then de-register the Kindles every week ( or however often we swap out books) will be a lot more work than taking the credit card off of the account (which is the solution Amazon suggested) when I'm not actively buying more books. My understanding is that the default number of Kindles that can have a book at a given time is 6 (but others are unlimited, and others fewer than 6, set by publisher) so it's like having 6 copies. My understanding (also verified by the Amazon rep I spoke with) is that if someone is finished and "deletes"/"archives" the book so it is no longer on that Kindle, then another Kindle or other device on the account can then upload it.

Staples is the Store of that type with which my university has a preferred business arrangement. I have to go through the university and do what they say. I also have to use the procurement card (credit card) specifically assigned me by the University (in part to get our purchases tax-exempt). However, it is still worth looking into whether Target will work with the University (me) and give us a quantity discount on the regular Kindle. Thanks for the idea.

The Kindles will actually be property of the University (and thus the State of Colorado) and apparently I can't even give them to the school when we are done (or if I eventually can make that happen, it will be after a LOT of hassle and red tape and who knows what else -- stupid, huh? Apparently, if I understand it correctly, it's better to let the things sit around and rot than to hand them off to someone who can use them. I don't know if the University would even let us sell them, but I should think if that were to happen the granting agency would be interested in the money, even though they may not actually have a claim to it; I've never bought tangible stuff for projects before, so I don't know what is typical in getting rid of the stuff afterwards).

I've found a really nice cover right on Amazon that should total about $10, so I think I've got that covered (bad pun, sorry). :-)

As to the ad removal, all the ads are in a single sub-directory that can be deleted. If the Kindle WiFi is not activated, the ads will not return. This is sort of against what Amazon wants so you might not want to do this. No sense getting into trouble you don't need, especially as you are representing a school.

Exactly. I really can't go doing things like jailbreaking the Kindle, doing other things that are against user agreements, etc. But if the ads really aren't annoying nor viewed as being crass commercialism, then I don't care about the ads.

Since you have some time before school starts, it might not be a bad idea to get one of the Special Offer Kindles and play around with it to see what works and what doesn't.

Although our schools actually start here Aug 17 [so I don't have that much time]; and in the spring end in mid-May... but yes, that's a good idea, and I intend to do that so that I know what they look like personally. I can't buy quite yet (need to get the procurement card, and we have a little more bureaucracy to sift through) so I do have a little time.

Any more questions, please ask. I am happy to help out. I remember my graduate work and my dissertation well. Anything I can do to make it easier is no problem.

Thanks. I remember those days too... adult subjects from the subject pool for my dissertation work. Much easier than working with kids or dealing with school districts, much less having to work with a university procurement card!

Thanks again,
Carolyn