Earlier today I read that there may be a new Kindle e-book reader coming out for students. The main differences would include a larger screen and more research oriented features. Ever since the first e-book reader came out, I always thought that the best use of them would be for school.
There are so many reasons that eliminating print books and using a Kindle in school and college would make great sense:
1. Weight - Students would no longer have to carry around tremendously heavy backpacks or bags that weigh as much as they do. Every book they need would be downloaded onto this one Kindle which weighs less than a pound.
2. Cost
a. College Students - They would save a tremendous amount of money. They would buy one e-reader when they began college. Even at approximately $360, they would make it back quickly since the cost of e-books themselves are usually less than half the price of a print book. To make this work, publishers of academic textbooks would have to agree to have e-book versions of their works made.
b. K to 12 - This would require a large expense for school districts up front, but I would imagine that vast discounts would be offered to school districts. And as long as the readers held up, they could be reused each year.
3. Research - If the e-readers have wi-fi they are a perfect tool for students because they can click on hyperlinks in text and easily do research. I always thought that even for nonstudents, the best use of e-readers would be for nonfiction.
4. Portability - Students may be more apt to bring their Kindle with them wherever they go, which would give them the ability to find extra time to study when they might not have had their books with them.
I'm still undecided whether I want a Kindle for myself, but I am a bibliophile, I love actually owning and having the actual books. But, I never cared about keeping textbooks. I would have loved to have been able to save money and not have lugged heavy books around when I was in school. I think that the Kindle, or any brand of e-book that decides to produce for students or schools, will have a good market.
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Yes, that would be great. BUT—textbook manufacturers are the hold outs. They make a fortune in textbook contracts with school districts. Access like this would seriously cut into their revenues.
The higher up into education a student gets, the more niche the textbook, and the more expensive. These are the ones that might actually benefit from a kindle-like platform, since they wouldn't have to go to the expense of publishing.
I agree that text book publishers would be reluctant. Plus there is not a standard format yet for e-book readers. Don't you have to buy any book for the Kindle through Amazon?
And how would file "sharing" affect this?
I always used the resale of my textbooks to help buy the new ones for the next semester, so that would be the only downside I can think of...
interesting idea, especially for undergrads who don't intend to keep textbooks to build up a professional library.
I have a Kindle and it's great. Most Kindle version books are cheaper than the same book in hardcover, many by far. I'm very excited about the future of Kindle and the potential of a collaboration with textbook publishers. Wish my college student son could have his books on Kindle now. He'd love to haul around a very lightweight Kindle instead of half a dozen very heavy textbooks.
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the kindle dx the the e reader for students and this christmas I got a nook color. First off, the nook color is better, I don't care for tablet features but the color is perfect for charts and maps, the pdf viewer is super and a quick run in a program called calibre, I had over 400 books on the nook in a flash.
The kindle dx is really meant for people that need to care something that will count as a text book, for the bigger size, you can go on the web and read articles like on a ipad. But really, text books need to have color screen as they are full of images, even bland history books have images. You need to have images in medical books, and somethings really you can't tell if it is green or blue, you just have to guess. So if you really want something that will do school, get a nook color, if you want more functionality, get the iPad