Right idea, wrong device
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 06:47AM 
A recent paper by the New Democratic Leadership Council advocates for "A Kindle in Every Backpack." Thomas Z. Freedman lays out a solid argument for how replacing print textbooks with e-textbooks and Kindle-like readers is a sound move for both educational and financial reasons.
It's great to see e-texts get some mention outside "techie" circles. I've been a proponet for the shift from paper to silicon for quite awhile:
- The Future of Books, April 1995, Head for the Edge column
- The Future of Books Revisited - May 2000, Head for the Edge column
- Turning the Page (E-books and their impact on libraries) School Library Journal, November 2004
I suspect, however, that this proposal would be more widely accepted had the brand name Kindle not appeared in the title. The overly proprietary nature of its content format (Kindle only really reads Amazon supplied texts) raises lots of concern in some educational circles.
Don't get me wrong. I love my personal Kindle and think it is terrific device. I am willing to accept that I can buy only from Amazon and I have no ability to share, trade, sell or give away books I have purchased.
It's just not the right tool for the job Freedom wants it to do.
While an e-textbook reader will need to be able to read some commercial textbook content that is protected by password, software or other DRM scheme (OK, Peter, start writing!), I also want the device to:
- read text from multiple textbook providers
- read content from a wide variety of free sources including Curriki and Gutenberg
- allow customization of content by teachers and re-mixing of content by students
My best guess is that commercial textbook providers will look to a model similar to that used by DiscoveryStreaming, ProQuest or other subscription-based content providers as an economic model. Textbooks will accessed and read primarily online with a GoogleGears-like application to make materials available for off-line reading.
Now if we just had a netbook that used e-ink for easy reading and extended battery life. I'm sure someone, somewhere is working on such a device. Scott-Foresman, how about giving such a device away with every five-year subscription to your textbook series?
Reader Comments (9)
I agree, but I would finish your last sentence: How about INSTEAD of a five-year subscription to a textbook series?
"Now if we just had a netbook that used e-ink for easy reading and extended battery life. I'm sure someone, somewhere is working on such a device."
I don't know what it is about the XO that causes you to have such a blind spot about it. You've got that device in your possession. Give it a different OS and particularly the 1.5 version of the hardware and that's it, we're done!
This issue is getting too much lip service, and not enough analysis...
Thank you for helping balance this discussion out with some deeper thinking on the issue.
I'd rather my child have a netbook than a e-reader device. It would go a step further for digital literacy than a e-reader device would and not have to deal with the DRM dance that is currently going on. I think we are couple of technology cycles away from a better e-reader, a couple of congressional cycles away from better copyright laws, and a couple of business cycles away from a better e-book business model. Yep, a bunch of cycles!
I simply don't know why we constantly get caught in the "either-or" trap. I don't know what the future holds and neither does anyone else. The question for me is "How do I use this marvelous new device (Kindle or other e-book reader) for learning?" For me, with the free conversion program Stanza (Mac and Windoze), the Kindle has turned out to be a wonderful professional learning device, a real important extension to my personal learning network. Find an article (pdf or word) that I think I should read but don't have the time to, download to my computer, run it through Stanza, and put it on my Kindle for reading on the train or at the shopping center or wherever. That also could be true for students who are doing research or projects or any reading they find in journals.
And with Project Gutenberg and other projects, many classics are available as text for downloading and posting to the Kindle (or other device) for convenient reading.
So, for me, it is a question of both/and, an expansion of learning opportunity, an additional resource, another avenue--not the primitive trap of either/or.
Skip Olsen
Hi Ninja,
I was thinking of the cell phone business model - you get a "free" phone with a two service plan.
Doug
Hi Tom,
I had forgotten that the XO had a passive screen mode. I bought one of the first ones and have not explored any later versions. How are the readability. battery life, cost and availability of the newest models?
All the best,
Doug
Hi Andy,
I'm guessing most educators want a device that will do much more than just allow text to be read. And kids demand interactivity.
Like you, I think the impediments thrown up by copyright laws right now will do more to slow down the implementation of this than the technology piece.
Thanks for the comment,
Doug
HI Skip,
I'd be in alignment with your argument were the ability to create and move personal pdf files and Gutenberg book to the Kindle as simple as they've made downloading materials from Amazon.
And the either/or trap is one that bothers me too. See: <http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2006/1/13/and-not-or.html> Thanks for the reminder.
Doug
The XO screen is not as completely passive as the Kindle -- it still takes power to maintain the image on the LCD screen, you just don't have to power the backlight (which is most of the power for the display, if not the whole computer).
I'm not so much literally thinking of the XO as that style of computer (of which the XO is the only example). In practice, what you'd want is the new version of the screen from Pixel Qi, which hopefully will be putting out commercially licensed versions of the XO screen technology SOON, and an ARM processor, which will soon be appearing on netbooks to give phone-style power consumption on a netbook/ebook form factor. And probably actually removing some of the features that the XO has, like the mesh networking and perhaps the camera.
"While an e-textbook reader will need to be able to read some commercial textbook content that is protected by password, software or other DRM scheme"
"Commercial" and "DRM" can exist separately.
Philosophically, I tend to agree with Tom Hoffman's view on DRM. I will paraphrase - correct me if I'm wrong...accepting DRM for your own personal devices is your own choice, but schools should say no to DRM.
I don't agree that schools "will need" proprietary-driven devices to access learning materials. There are many ways to skin a cat. Schools that believe they need proprietary software and books locked down by DRM to offer quality education have been hoodwinked.
Hi Peter,
This will be an interesting problem as e-text readers go mainstream. I am wondering if curriculum directors and other administrators will equate "open" sources as lacking in quality or validity. Given the resistance to Wikipedia and other open reference sources, it wouldn't surprise me. We're dealing with some pretty traditional folks!
Thanks for the comment,
Doug