- Turning the Page
- eTextbooks on the
College Campus - eBooks in the K-12 Schools
- Teaching eReading
- eBooks in the Library
- Redefining Literacy
We have already looked at the practicality of eBook readers in general, and considered whether or not they have a place in higher education. In this post, we focus our attention on their possible uses in the classrooms of K-12 schools.
While we have already discussed the possibility of obtaining college-level textbooks for eBook readers and found that although the availability is still lacking, it is possible. I found there is not much available for K-12 students, though. Several companies had some eBooks available for teachers and Pearson had one Honors and one AP Edition textbook that had eBooks available through their companion websites (but, you had to buy the paper edition in order to get access to it, which defeats the purpose). I began to think of some other ways that the devices could be used in the classroom to benefit students.
When I found that K-12 students would not be able to use eTextbooks, I was disappointed (though not surprised) but I did not want to write them off just yet. I did consider the possibility of reading periodicals, RSS feeds, as well as web and teacher-created documents such as PDF and DOC files. But, I had to ask myself why would we use these expensive devices for such basic purposes.
Although I know that many new technologies can have a profound effect on teaching and learning, I have never been a fan of using technology simply for the sake of using it. This means that if we are allowing the technology and its limitations to guide our teaching we have lost sight of the goal.
Instead of the eBook reader I would suggest providing older students with laptops younger students with PDAs. With Wi-Fi connections these devices can have the same connectivity benefits of eBook readers as well as read all of the same file formats.
With the drop in price of computers and the entrance netbooks into the market, full-featured laptops can be cheaper than the limited-function eBook reader. Laptops can also serve to surf the internet, type reports and everything else that a student might use a computer for. I suggest laptops starting at 6th grade.
Microsoft’s Anytime Anywhere Learning Project has been experimenting with this for over 10 years. In one report from South Dakota schools, laptop immersion has proven to be very effective. Many private schools are already trying them. I first saw them in use a few years ago at the Chapin School and Malia Obama will find out next year at the Sidwell Friends School.
For younger students, a modified Portable Digital Assistant (PDA) could also have a place as they are smaller, cheaper, and although they cannot do all that a laptop can do, they can still function to read text, and view pictures. Mark Pullen mentioned how he would use them with his third and fourth grade students to have them subscribe to blogs.
One issue is that whether we are speaking about the Amazon Kindle, the HP Mini, or a Palm Treo, these expensive devices were designed for adults in the business world and not kids in school. Some developers are starting to catch on to the possibilities, as evidenced by LeapFrog’s kid-friendly and appropriately priced Text & Learn. There is still a long way to go in developing appropriate devices and applications though.
For another story on how elementary students are using technology in authentic ways to enhance their learning, please read High Tech in Hawaii.
My conclusion with eBooks is that they just do not do enough for the K-12 classroom. When reading textbooks is eliminated and there is no clear advantage to using eBook readers over a PDA or a laptop there really is no reason to use them at this level. Although I like the concept of the eBook reader, this seems to be yet another areas that they simply do not shine.
The next post in this series is titled, “Teaching eReading” and looks at both using eBook readers and other handheld devices as teaching tools as well as how they can be put to good use by teachers for administrative and other functions.
Flickr photo courtesy of jnxyz
Another area to consider is ebooks in PDF format. While this format isn't always friendly to ebook readers, it is a format that works well on the computers that are already in K-12 schools. A growing list of publishers are putting their materials in PDF and making them available through many channels. I run an estore geared towards the K-12 market and am seeing strong interest in this area. http://www.keybookshop.com/
Sure reading PDFs on the computer screen would cut down on some costs related to printing, shipping and even storing – not to mention damage. But, students can't take them home (we can't assume that kids will have computers at home). Also, I have never seen a classroom with enough computers for every student… meaning group reading or any other whole group activity would be ruled out. If kids had laptops that would work, but they are still costly and more than what is needed. PDAs designed for educational use might be better, though I have heard there can be problems changing font size because PDF is a fixed-width format. I liked what I saw at your site and had been looking for something like it when preparing for this post so thank you for posting the link. I noticed a lot of workbooks there and that brings up another limitation of devices such as the Kindle or Sony's PSR-700 – the user can't fill anything in. However, I know there is freely available PDF reader software that would allow the user to make notes and then return the file to an instructor… or even use a PDF form that could check itself. Some of these ideas will be looked at more in the next post.