Kindle News

I am sure that you are aware by now of Amazon's new Kindles.  The $79 Kindle is a great deal for schools.  I still prefer the Kindle Keyboard at $99, but students will move seamlessly into the new touch environment.  Here again is a short list of the pluses of Kindles for the classroom:

• Cool factor - many non-readers get hooked 
• Energy consumption - 1 charge lasts up to 2 weeks
• Bang for the buck -
• $10 book can be loaded onto 6 Kindles
• New Kindles can contain well over 2,000 titles
• Free books - most classics
• $.99 books
• 1-year replacement warranty
• Reading support -
• Text-to-speech (not available for all books)
• On-board dictionary (locate-to-lookup)
• Wikipedia look-up (with wifi on)
• Font variability
• Landscape or Portrait views
• Bookmarking and note-taking/underlining
• New Kindle Fire (color) 
• Kindle book sharing (14-day) - www.amazon.com/kindle-lending
• Vocabulary games (free)
• Purchasing advantages -
• Speed of purchase (with credit card)
• Ease of download
• Educational support -
• Sharing of notes/printing
• Laptop integration
• Sharing .pdf and .doc files via email
• Kindle on Mac / iTouch / iPhone / iPod / iPad - sharing and synching with free apps - same for the PC
• .mp3 playing (audiobooks)
• magazines and newspapers too!

•  Students like:
• Size and weight
• Immediate access to new books (once purchased)
• Cool factor (especially true with new Touch format and books downloaded to smart phones)

On the other hand: Here is a fun little read to share with students: "The Future of Books - a Dystopian Timeline."  Is this a case of "it can't happen here" or it is a case of "we have met the enemy..."??

By the way: 

• Amazon has a new service: Kindle Loans.  If you have a Prime membership with Amazon ($79/year and worth it if you purchase a lot: free shipping), then you can borrow eBooks for free, one at a time.  If you are a school with Kindles and an account, consider spending the $79.  Every registered Kindle device can participate in this program.  Currently, attractive titles include: The Hunger Games trilogy and lots of vampire books.  You can also borrow most of the Galaxy Project short stories and novellas (read my description).
• Amazon Student is a special membership level.  It requires a .edu email address.  This membership also makes you eligible for the eBook Kindle Loan program.  If you can wrangle a .edu email address, setting up the account is worth it. 
• Amazon has the below $.99 titles available.  If you have classroom Kindles, or an Amazon account of your own, you should read these guides (or have your librarian read them).  

Amazon.com