Larry Dignan loans me his Kindle

Fellow blogger, Larry Dignan, loaned me his Amazon Kindle so that I could look at it from an Ed Tech perspective (thanks, by the way, Larry - I promise I'm not downloading the complete works of Neal Stephenson and charging them to your Amazon account). Is this yet another toy for well-funded districts or could it have some real value for educators? I've only had it for a night and didn't get to break it out until after Parents' Night (we can hardly ask the town for better pay and benefits while I have my head buried in a $400 ebook reader), but my initial answer is yes. Yes to both questions, that is.

First and foremost, let me say that if I wasn't a teacher with a bunch of kids that eat up my disposable income, I'd definitely spring for one of these $399 devices. There are few things that I love more than reading and since I'm in the middle of 5 different books right now (and am not making appreciable progress in any of them), a little electronic book reader that could fit in one pocket of my cargo pants, hold every one of the books, and come with me anywhere would be the coolest Christmas present ever.

That said, however, from the point of view of an educator, educational technologist, parent, student, and taxpayer, does a Kindle (or lots of Kindles) make sense in the classroom? I don't think it's there yet for a couple of key reasons. Most importantly, textbook content, as well as solid support for image rendering simply isn't there. I can live with the black-and-white screen, but a picture really is worth a thousand words for most kids. The lack of high-quality image support on the digital ink screen, even if the textbook content were available, is something of a deal-breaker.

In the same way, the cost is simply too high at this point for too little educational content. Despite free access to Wikipedia (a resource that, while incredible in its own right, must be taken with a grain of salt), cheap dictionary downloads, and text-based web connectivity (via free EVDO wireless), $400 can also buy you an Asus Eee, getting you a full-blown computer (that could certainly double as an ebook reader as more content comes online). Even the XO can be had for $400, features a black-and-white e-reader mode, and scores you a $200 tax deduction for the extra XO landing in a developing country.

But what about savings on textbooks, you ask? Well, if a wide library of textbooks were out there, and the next generation of the Kindle could handle images as easily as the Eee, then you just might have a point. At anywhere from $50-$200 a pop, textbooks are a huge expense; if substantial discounts could accompany the downloadable content and the content could be easily moved among Kindles based on course offerings, I'd be pitching these things like crazy to the school committee.

The Kindle really is an exciting product for Ed Tech, though, because it points to where we'll be in a couple of years. While I can't see the device being ready for educational prime time yet, it already contains a number of useful tools. Sections of text can be annotated and highlighted. It is already incredibly easy to read the text, which can be quickly resized to accommodate the visually impaired. Finally, it is light and small, with the potential to eliminate what we call "freshmen backpacks" as well as to prevent wear and tear on the countless reading and textbooks that we assign to kids. We can even save some serious trees along the way.

Address the content issues, content management and licensing (something that makes sense for shared resources and fair use in an educational setting), and let Moore's Law do its magic on the price, and we'll be in business.

There will definitely be more to come on this as students and staff take a look at the Kindle for a few days next week. For right now, if anyone would like to participate in the Chris Dawson Give a Kindle, Get a Kindle program, please feel free to purchase 2 Kindles and send one to me. My wife will certainly thank you since, monstrously organized supermom that she is, she always finds herself picking up the lengthy hardcovers I tend to leave behind wherever I was last reading them. Why she thinks that Neil Gaiman doesn't belong on the couch, I'll never understand, but I think the GaKGaK program (not to be confused with OLPC's G1G1 program) would make her happy.