There are some people who believe that a product like the Kindle is unnecessary or excessive. I will admit, reluctantly, that at one time I belonged to this camp. But the more I read and hear about the Kindle, the more I get excited. There are so many ways that this could become a staple to every English classroom. But, of course, before this gadget can become an integral part of a classroom, we are going to need to see a few adjustments.
For instance, let’s talk price. $359. Now, I know that people pay this much for mp3 players and iPods, but this isn’t even including the price of purchasing books. I think that if Amazon is interested in being the pioneers into the classroom the price will need to come down considerably. Or at least we need to give the schools a nice discount. As Jason Perlow mentions in his Tech Broiler blog, this is not a product for mass consumer adoption.
However, for an English class it might allow teachers the opportunity to teach more books if they had such a gadget. I think that it would be necessary to allow schools to also get books at a cheaper price seeing as they don’t just buy one book. As Perlow says in his blog the average college text book on Kindle is cheaper than the average price for a used text. Seeing as this saves quite a bit of money over time, we can see that the same would be for many Kindle books. This would allow teachers and administration to allocate some of the money elsewhere or even to purchase new books more often.
I’m not going to sugar coat this and pretend I think this is the best idea ever. You have a few downsides.
One: You are allowing students to handle expensive technology, and now you have to decide if they can only read when they are in class. Are you going to let them take this home?
Two: It is a big investment. Although I am thoroughly convinced that over time a school could save a lot of money (assuming the price of a Kindle becomes economical for mass adoption), it is a huge start up cost. It falls under the “you have to spend money to save money” category.
Three: Technology is changing really quickly. If technology is changing this quickly now, imagine how fast technology will change over the next two or three years! It is possible that by the time you have saved enough money to make it worth your while there will be much better technology available. (Which is a good reason to look into renting technology for your school)
Overall, I think that the Kindle could be a good addition to the English classroom. However, I might hold out and see how long such technology will last. If it makes it to the point where Kindle reduces greatly in price, I would definitely suggest looking into this gadget.
I first learned about the Kindle from Geekbrief. If you want to know more check out Geekbrief.tv. Also, for more on the Kindle Economics check out Jason Perlow’s blog entry here.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Amazon, Geekbrief, Geekbrief.tv, Jason Perlow, Kindle
My roommate has a kindle. Its so cool. There are a lot of neat additions, you can flag pages, highlight quotes, that kind of thing.
But as for the kindle being adopted in the classroom? Unlikely for now. In the future though? It could happen. The price has to fall considerably before schools will even think about that. Its a cool idea though and in 10 years something like that could happen. School copies get so torn up and are treated so poorly by students electronic devices like Kindle could, as you said, save money in the long run. Nothing “cutting edge” is ever adopted for an entire classroom as the technology must come down in price. But in the future could a cheaper, less expensive and no longer cutting edge version of Kindle be in the classroom? maybe. Its a cool idea!
I see where a Kindle could be useful in classrooms. It might intrigue many students and get them excited about reading. It would be convenient when one wants a new book, they just buy and download. Like you said though that is really sugar coated. I agree with all of your reasons that the Kindle will not work in the classroom. It is not like a ordinary text book where a student could just toss it in his/her locker. Also I agree that the price would be overwhelming for a school district. I am doing No Child Left Behind and I am not sure the Kindle will make student more proficient in reading and writing.
The main reason I would not want the Kindle in a classroom is corny but I feel it is true. There is something about sitting down with a book and turning the pages, something that you would not get from a piece of equipment. I just feel that reading should require a book, and students should enjoy the experience and not just because they get to play around with some new technology. That’s the main reason I would not want one but there are plenty of good reasons for getting one as well.