Kindle?

It was not too long ago that I started thinking more about Kindles and other electronic readers sparked by a post at The Reading Zone. My sister told me that her brother in law got a Kindle and it has been perfect for his college coursework. Instead of lugging around a heavy bag full of books, he just has his Kindle as almost every book he needed was available in a Kindle edition. I checked on Amazon to see how many of the books from my current college writing class were listed, and they were all there except one that had just been released that month. Before buying books for my classes this summer I am going to weigh out to see if it seems like a good idea to go with the Kindle.

As far as middle grades/YA books, I was in agreement with Sarah from The Reading Zone when she mentioned in her post, "While I don't think I want an e-reader for my children's/YA books (because I like to donate them to classroom libraries after reading them), I might like a Nook for my adult reads, magazines, and newspapers."

However, a post by Ruth at Two Writing Teachers got my mind buzzing with possibilities. She talked about how one of her students absolutely loved reading a book on an iTouch using the free Kindle App. I had noticed the Kindle App, but to be honest, I was curious but not too excited because I thought the text might be too small. Her student's response  sparked me to explore more before disregarding it.

Soon my students will each have access to an iTouch, and they will be able to take them home. I thought the Kindle App could have a huge impact on my classroom library, but I was pondering the following:

*I would buy Kindle versions if students would be able to have access to them on their own iTouches. I know that they would probably not be able to have them open at the same time, but it would be great if the books were accessible on a variety of devices, just as the Apps are. If so, that could be pretty amazing, and it would solve the problem of having great books disappear for those that were on the Kindle editions.

*Along the same lines, if it is set up to where students can log in to the Amazon account and have access to the books, I wonder about security with credit cards linked to Amazon accounts.

*Once the book is downloaded, I wonder if students have to be in our school with wireless access to view it.

*How will my students respond to the iTouch Kindle App format? I am willing to pilot it out with some of the books.

I emailed Amazon to see if I could get some answers. Yesterday I was shocked when an Amazon representative called me rather than responding via email. He said that for now my students would be able to log on to access my Kindle store and download books I buy; however, this would give them access to my account tied to my credit card. Also, it is not set up to be a library checkout system, so there is a limit of five downloads per book (or whatever publishers set as a limit). When we were talking, I forgot to ask the wireless question. For now, I don't think it is a very viable option because of the 5 download limit and credit card concerns, but I will be watching because I won't be surprised if this does become available in the future.

There is always something fun and new to ponder with technology.