Kindles in School and sharing books

[chas0039]

I don't like the nook anymore, as their new version is touch and has lower contrast, but the elementary school here just bought a bunch of them and received a huge discount on the hardware ($80 off). You might check with your local B&N and see what they offer. I would also check with Amazon and see what they have for schools. There are a number of ereader manufacturers taking advantage of the school market and they might have something in the works. Ectaco has an ereader specifically for the schools which comes with the entire required reading library installed.

By the way, the nooks were a huge success.

[CarolynBG]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

Kids WANTING to read books?

You should see my son (now 13). He is re-reading Harry Potter for the bazillionth time; his first set of the books literally fell apart. And he reads a ton of other stuff, both fiction and non-fictions, such as my husband's IEEE Spectrum (he's a science geek).

My younger son (7), with developmental disabilities, is also an avid reader.

So yes, some kids are wanting to read books.

(I myself was a major bookworm when a kid, and I still read a lot.)

C

[CarolynBG]

Originally Posted by CarolynBG

I am about to start a small project in a local school. 16 Kindles. We don't need all the kids to have the same books at the same time. It is my understanding that most (not all) books have a 6 device limit, BUT that once a kid is done with the book it can be deleted from that device then downloaded to a different device. I got this straight from an Amazon rep. So this is the equivalent of your buying the eBook actually means you've got 6 copies of it, and a copy can be passed on to a different person once one is done with it.
Of course, if the idea is to have a textbook that everyone is using, then I guess you'd need to have as many accounts as (# of students divided by 6 [or however many devices that book is allowed to be on]) and then register 6 Kindles to each account, and buy a copy of the book for each account. That scenario *does* seem to be within the legal and allowed parameters for Kindles and books for Kindles, as far as I can tell.
But for the scenario like mine where you are essentially setting up a lending library, they can all be registered to the same account and if more kids want the book than copies are allowed to be on devices, you'd just have to have a waiting list of some sort.
cjbg

I may have misspoken in my earlier post; apparently there are some major changes in how this stuff is being managed in a school environment coming down the pike. I'm not the expert, but a librarian in Georgia, who writes a blog called the Unquiet Librarian (are we allowed to post links here? I'm new, and can't remember; anyway, just google Unquiet Librarian) has just written a couple long blogs on her dealings with Amazon re licensing and devices per account, etc.

Because of information she gave me, and some additional research on my part, I am now tipping toward the Nook Touch instead of the Kindle for my little research study. There are plusses and minuses on each side. I'd urge anyone who's administering large numbers of eReaders in a school environment to check out her blog (one of them was also reposted to the EduKindle site, too).
She may not have all the answers or all the answers for your situation, but she's got good info that you might want to take into account or consider, at the very least.
C