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Originally Posted by ProfCrash
Kindles, heck the Kindle Fire, are far more likely to work their way into K-8 schools due to cost. Do you want to trust a First Grader with a $500 machine or the $100 machine?
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The devices are nowhere near as kidproof as they'd need to be. To be issued to under-12-year-olds on a large scale, they'd need to be built more like the Nintendo DS: solid block of plastic, durable buttons, buffered insides that can take a short drop. I think it's do-able, but it'd take a total redesign, and I haven't seen any movement in that direction.
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As the e-readers move more into the tablet market we will see a growth in e-textbooks that will work on the less expensive devices. I would guess that most college students cannot really afford a laptop and an IPad,
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Many, perhaps most of them, can afford both; it's just too much hassle. Having your books on one device and your notetaking & spreadsheet programs on another is a nuisance. In order to push solidly into the college market, a textbook reader needs to *replace* the laptop--because the students still need to take notes, write papers during their breaks, manage their schedules, download course materials, print out instructions and finished papers, and so on. Until the tablet can integrate smoothly with a full-power computer, and contains easy ways to do most of the schoolday tasks, tablets won't be a standard part of the college education system.
As long as the tablet is "use this along with your laptop!" it'll be an occasional luxury device. Until they connect with a printer, they're not going to be a full-service device; until they've got an easy keyboard attachment, they won't be useful for writing term papers; until they support both MS Office and the Adobe Suite (or equivalents), they won't be usable for complex assignments, and so on.