Author: William M. Ferriter
Periodical: Educational Leadership, Vol.68, Issue 3, p.84-86
Link: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/nov10/vol68/num03/E-Readers@_Get_Ready_for_the_Revolution.aspx
This short article described the author's experiences introducing his students to his Amazon Kindle e-reader. He believe that e-readers will eventually find their way into schools and replace the need for not only classroom libraries, but maybe even entire school libraries.He cites two schools; Cushing Academy and a school in Scotland as already having replaced their school libraries with digital media and e-readers. He believes that e-readers are perfect for classrooms because they only have access to books, so that eliminates students looking at things they aren't supposed to. He also claims that an e-readers ability to change font size of text can help struggling readers to read more clearly. He ends the article with four questions that you can ask yourself to see if your district is ready for e-readers:
- What academic purposes do you have in mind?
- Is your school's infrastructure ready to handle new Internet traffic demands?
- Can you partner with local libraries?
- Will devices help you comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act?
This article is worth checking out if you own an e-reader or are thinking about getting one. More uses = better value for your money. I believe the bottom line here is that the technology is still relatively new, and very costly to a school to ready for this "revolution". I don't disagree that schools won't eventually get to this point, but I think it's still years away from me going to my high school and downloading a math book.
