Kindle

I have wanted a Kindle since I heard about them in Dr. Moorman's class in the Spring. I was reading the Top 10 reasons to have/not have a Kindle by John Biggs. The reasoning for having a Kindle were things I expected to hear such as: great for travel, great for various locations (ex. beach, pages don't get wet like a book), and because it is the future (yay!) The reasons for not having a Kindle were somewhat surprising. It almost seems that the negatives outweigh the positives in some aspects. The negatives were bottom heavy, not research friendly, Internet connection does not work globally, runs off battery, no organization programs and it is flimsy. After reading about all of the negatives for the device I wasn't sure what the rave is over the Kindle.

However, I continued on with my further exploration of the Kindle in classrooms. I read parts of the Edukindle blog. This was an interesting blog that discussed a variety of issues from accessibility for blind students because a text reader is not built in(kindle 1) to use in a classroom. If a Kindle is flimsy as Biggs mentioned in his article I would be wary about putting them in the hands of young students in particular because of cost factors if damaged. However I do think it would be a great option for college students. If universities would adopt Kindle's and require that all students purchase one, they could then get all of their textbooks through the Kindle. That would certainly save shelf space after they are finished with the textbooks.

I went to Amazon and did a comparison of features between the Kindle 1, Kindle 2, and Kindle DX. Just the changes from the Kindle 1 to Kindle 2 were remarkable. The Kindle DX appears to be a larger version of the Kindle 2.

One interesting comparison that I found was between a Kindle and a traditional book. While the Kindle is phenomenal in accessibility, space saving, etc...it is still not a book, and not quite as user friendly. The example that I read said that when you are looking for information or a certain passage in a book you can find it based on the physical aspects of the book such as "it is 1/2 way through, on the middle of the page, etc." With a Kindle you can't do this, so you are bound to remembering page numbers. However, when reading on a Kindle you can highlight and comment on the texts which is beneficial.

Anyways....I would still love to have a Kindle...mainly for space issues. My husband and I are both avid readers and have two tall bookcases full of novels and I am simply running out of walls. With that said I am working on dropping hints about my Christmas present!