Kindles Good or Bad in the Classroom

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2009/0715/a-plan-to-put-an-amazon-kindle-in-every-backpack

This article explains the plan for the government to provide each of the nation's 56 million K-12 students with a Kindle, or an electronic reading device. This program would equip 400,000 students with Kindles for an entire year. This plan would be 9 billion dollars more than the 6 billion dollars schools use on textbooks but they would save 700 million dollars within the first five years and eTextbooks cost begin to drop. If this pilot plan succeeds the new plan is to equip every student with a Kindle in the next four years. Some Universities have already allowed the use of the Kindle in the classroom when Amazon signed partnerships with some textbook companies. California also allows students in high school to use the Kindle in math and science classes.

The Kindle is the new generation of textbooks. It will save paper, money, and help schools stay-up-to-date with technology. The main highlight of a Kindle is the fact that you don't have to go and pay for textbooks, this saves time and money. The Kindle is light weight so students won't strain their backs by carrying big heavy textbooks around, they will only have to carry their Kindle around that has all their textbooks on it. A draw back to this is if the student was to lose their Kindle they would lose all their information for their classes. Another draw back is that you can not highlight the important information that the students might want to come back and reread for a test. Students might have their Kindles out during a class and you think that they are following along with the text but they could be doing something else on their Kindle without you knowing it. I believe that the Kindle can be a good thing and a bad thing for the classroom. It is good because it will save money, and the backs of the students. It is bad because it can be a distraction for some students in the classroom. I believe that if we make the switch to using a Kindle or other electronic reading sources in the classroom that textbooks should also be available to the students who learn better by reading out of a book, or for students who are sensitive to light. So I leave with this are Kindles good or bad?

Image from: flickr.com by goXunuReviews