So I was sitting in a training for a teacher thing, and I notice on break one of my teachers starring at a thing book-looking thing. Being intrigued, I went over there to ask him what he had. He said it was a Kindle. I had never heard of such a piece of technology, but it looked nifty. He showed me in the little amount of time we had what it was, how it worked and gave examples of what you could do with such a thing. So let me share with you what I learned, how it could be implemented in education and any issues that could arise with using such a piece of technology.
The Amazon Kindle- This device is hardware, but also software that supports e-books and other media that is digital. You can download different types of media into this device via Amazon or other digital media online sites. Not only can you view downloaded material, you can also use the Kindle to peruse the Internet for free!
I could see this technology being GREAT in the classroom!!! Think about a school where there are no textbooks, but Kindles. The amount of weight that is lifted from a student because they don't have to carry around textbooks, the amount of information they could have in front of them! I could see this being used two ways. One, every child gets their own or each class has a set to use as they need. According to their website, there are over 200,000 books available to download. Prices range from $4.99 for older titles to new ones costing as much as $15! That's really not that bad. Think about how this would push the textbook publishing companies into the 21st century!
Here's how you use it. Follow this link for a great virtual tour of how to use the Kindle and it's features!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAlxAawR3NI
Some limitations to this technology would be that you cannot expand the amount of memory it contains. So you would at points have to transfer some books off to add new ones if the memory chip was full. The Kindle also does not allow the user to organize the books into files so you would have to scroll down your complete index every time you want to find something. You could not organize your downloads into subjects if you wanted to. I could see that be a limitation as a teacher because I would want to group things by units. If the battery fails on the Kindle you must send the whole unit in for repair because it has no removable battery. Lastly, what if a students were to break one? It would have to be replaced and the cost of one is over $350. That's as much as some schools pay for laptops. There are many technology grants out there that go unused every year, so if one were to be broken, a teacher could probably find the money somewhere to replace it if the family cannot. I would think before using the parents would need to sign some sort of agreement to pay in the event of purposeful breakage or misuse.
Resources:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/09/whats-new-with-the-kindle-2/
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/03/090803fa_fact_baker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle
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I have heard of Kindles, but never actually used one. I like your idea of using them for textbooks. No more complaining about heavy backpacks! I would worry about the care of these, kids are not necessarily gentle with their books. I might look into some grant money....
ReplyDeleteMight want to check out the Barnes and Noble Nook as well. A little more advanced and half the price of a Kindle DX.
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of universities already moving towards the kindle and nook for their books.
Also purusing the internet for free is a bit of a misnomer. You need to be near an open wireless hotspot to make that work (or pay for covereage at a pay hotspot like starbucks who uses AT&T etc)..
Also I find viewing the internet in black and white and mostly text is not so good.
For book reading though these are amazing, if only the price would come down. Books still cost close to what they cost in paper form. It unfortunetly is not Like AmazonMP3 or Itunes where prices have gone down consederably.
Also, the apple iPAD coming out soon may be an interesting alternative to the eReaders.
I'm hoping to get a Nook soon so you can play wit that more when I do! :)
I would love to have Kindles in my classroom! My students bring me books with ripped out pages all the time. However, I wouldn't ever want to use only Kindles. There are great things about actual books! Especially for those of us tat teach primary.
ReplyDeleteA kindle seems like a fun and innovative way to encourage students to read. I would not want them to replace books altogether, but they would make a great addition to the classroom. I can imagine that students would like to use them in small groups during guided reading to mix things up a litte bit. I could see them being useful as a textbook replacement in secondary or college level classrooms. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds wonderful. In my English class, we rarely use our textbook anymore. However,kids are still forced to pay the huge fee for them and lug them around school. This would be a great solution to that problem. As one other commenter said before me, the iPad sounds like a similar type of technology. Thanks for sharing this with us.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I know about kindles is that my wife really wants to get one. I agree that it could be cost effective for schools to purchase classroom sets of this the only problem is the initial cost. I have also heard that some kindles have internet capabilities now. If a school was able to get over the initial cost of obtaining this devices I think they could save money in the long run. Very interesting topic.
ReplyDeleteI have wanted a Kindle for some time now. I love them! What's also great about them is that they have a built in dictionary. If you don't understand a term, you just click on it and the definition comes up at the bottom. I was borrowing a friend's Kindle to use while reading a novel that had originally been written in Swedish. It was translated just fine, but a lot of the company and landmark references were new to me. The Kindle provided that background knowledge so that I could fully understand the book. It's a very great tool... just a little pricey. But with every technology, it will come down in price as the "newness" wears off.
ReplyDeleteAs an English teacher with huge textbooks, I love the idea of using a Kindle in the classroom. However, in out district, students are required to buy their own novels as we focus on active reading, requiring our students to interact with the text, marking passages and making notes to themselves. Granted, I've only played with the early prototypes of the Kindle, but I would want a mix between this technology and what we see on websites like Diigo, where students can highlight, make notes, and share those notes with others in the class. Hopefully, as this technology is developed specifically for the classroom, this aspect will be added in.
ReplyDelete