Article Reviews: 1-4

This week we were asked to read and review two articles each day. I confess I started late because of focusing on other aspects of this class, homework in another class, and working 40 hours a week.  Here are four of the required 10 posts. I will work on having the rests of the posts by the end of the week.
 

•   "Gilbert School Embracing eReader Technology with Nook Club"

Sonoma Ranch Elementary School is using eReaders to encourage students to read more. They program allows the student to check out a Nook for two weeks to read a book. The program is being used in the 6^th grade right now but they hope to expand the program. They currently only have 6 Nooks, but hope to purchase enough so a teacher may use them in their class to do a literary study. The article discusses how the librarians can download the books faster than waiting to get them from the publisher and the cost saves is significant when looking at purchasing large volumes of books.

I like this idea of the eReaders in the library and for classroom studies. I was a volunteer in the library when my daughters were in Intermediate school. I know how expensive it gets when trying to purchase books for a school library. One copy may be $12, but you need at least 3 copies for the shelves and then if it is going to be a class read, their needs to be a set of 30 ordered. Additional, the students would see the book in the stores and ask for it in the library. Many times we would tell them it would take a couple of months to get the book. (A librarian has to request the book, have the purchase approved, and then order the book. This can take awhile.) The eReader could enable the school to get books sooner and keep students interested in the book.

•   "Why We Won't Purchase More Kindles At the Unquiet Library"

The Unquiet Library had an interesting experience with Amazon. Amazon informed them that they were going to need to have an account for each Kindle the library has, including a separate e-mail address for each Kindle. They informed the librarian of this change after they saw a post on the library's Facebook page. The librarian was informed that they work working on a solution for libraries but didn’t have one in place at the time. The new agreement was not education friendly. As a result of this change, the library had reached a final decision to move to using the Nook.

In a time when schools are short on funds and trying to find a solution to keeping up with current technologies to help our children, it is almost shocking that Amazon (one if not the biggest online retailer) is making it hard for schools to use their product. From a marketing aspect, this isn't good business. If children use the product at school they are more likely to go home and ask their parents/grandparents for the product, or save up the money themselves to purchase a Kindle. The more people exposed to your product the better. I can understand why the school is looking at a different type of eReader.

•   "The Kindle Fire As Educational Tablet?"

The author of this article discussed how the Kindle Fire was just being released, plus her thoughts on eReaders in education. She discussed how Amazon wasn't very lower education friendly, but how college students may be a growing market for eReaders. The article states that more college students are using eReaders than reading on their laptops.

The author mentioned Amazon was trying some new programs to try and gain more of the eReader market, such as starting a Kindle Textbook Rental program. She discusses how college students say eReaders make taking notes and sharing books difficult, as well as they don't offer a cost-savings. She also makes a comment about the Kindle just being a "book store" for Amazon.

This article brings up a good point about the limited ability of the Kindle because it is tied to Amazon's "book store." Schools need to be able to have access to books from more than one source. I looked to see if I could purchase a book from Amazon for my Mac and I could. So I can buy books for my Mac from a few places, but I can only purchase books for the Kindle from Amazon. The article also mentioned the size of the Kindle. For schools I think a larger size device would be better.

•   "How the Amazon Kindle Fire Fits Into Education"

When Amazon released the Kindle Fire the thought was this is to compete with the iPad. The video shows how you can use the Kindle to shop for movies, books, and items on Amazon but doesn't show anything else. When asked if it will run Goggle, the rep says no it is their own programming. The customer will be able use Amazon's Appstore for Android. He loves showing off the touch screen. The article discusses the specs of the Kindle Fire, stating it only has 8 GB of memory. One must have an Amazon account to use the device and have storage on Amazon's Cloud Drive. The author discusses how the Kindle Fire will help teachers by having textbook rentals.

This article is a pure puff piece and the title is misleading. The author doesn't give any tangible information in how the Kindle Fire can be used in education. The brief mention of textbooks and saying the device is cheaper than an iPad isn't enough information about how to use it in the classroom. Having to have an Amazon account to access ones' books and then apps from their Android appstore are not positives. This article makes the Kindle Fire sound like it is just simply an eReader that wants to be like the really tablets but just can't deliver.