Kindle 2: Why Schools Aren't On Board...Yet

As a proud owner of the PRS 500 e-reader, I commend Sony on their integration of e-ink before the Amazon Kindle. It's truly a remarkable piece of technology and the PRS 500 has served me well: it has forever changed the way I purchase and read books, much the same way the Palm Pilot changed the way I organized my life.

But there's a new kid on the block, and it's called the Amazon Kindle 2. Being able to download a book, magazine, newspaper, or blog while soaking in the sun at the beach feels like a magical experience. That sounds great, coming from a teacher during his summer break, but what about the average student in the classroom? What are the educational implications? Most kids I talk to would love to trade in their 30+ pound backpacks, filled with outdated, over-priced text books for a portable, flexible, lightweight e-book reader such as the Kindle 2, but is the world ready for this? Is it time?

Not yet. Three big obstacles stand in the way: Price, Publishing Considerations, and Color. First, the price of the device needs to come down -- way down. Amazon dropped the price of the Kindle 2 back in July, 2009 from a whopping $359 to $299. This was a great move for people who were on the fence, but in order to get schools on board, there needs to be a sub-$100 consumable device in this space -- one that won't make teachers paranoid to let it go back and forth from school to home.

As for publishing agreements, education leaders need to create some kind of licensing agreement with publishers and perhaps even invent a system whereby kids can digitally "check out" books from a "cloud" library.

Color. I don't know what kind of technology would be required to pull off a color e-reader, but the world is in color and it's hard to convince people they should be content with black and white, no matter how crisp and clear it is (and the text and images do indeed jump off the screen on the Kindle 2). In fact, novels, newspapers, blogs, and even the content of most magazines are a pleasure to read on the Kindle 2, but compared to an eye-popping, full color image in a social studies or science text book, it pales in comparison.

I'll post a more detailed look at the Kindle 2 in an upcoming review, but for now, suffice it to say: Fix these three issues and you'll see a huge move towards e-book readers in the education sector.

Students Click Their Way To Success

"Thumbs up - Thumbs down" is a widely used way to informally check whether or not your students understand what you’ve taught them. But who actually counts kids' thumbs? And aren't most student responses held suspect because they are so worried about feeling judged by their peers? They look around to see who has their thumb up or down before they respond... Now, imagine if your students could send you their responses privately, with the click of a button. What if their responses could be tallied and displayed immediately in a bar graph or pie chart on an interactive whiteboard or projection screen. Wouldn't that be much more accurate? Wouldn't that be cool? Let me assure you: it is.

What are they?

Most people call them "Clickers." They look like little TV remote control units, and they work in sort of the same way. Generally speaking, they all do roughly the same thing: provide a direct wireless connection between a teacher and his or her students. Student response systems include a radio frequency (RF) remote for each student in a given class, a central receiver, software, and some form of assessment software, which tallies student responses, records attendance, posts test results and provides individual feedback. 

Enhances Interactive Teaching and Learning

The brand of student response system I've been testing for the last few months is the Senteo interactive response system. Like all student responders, they're designed to enhance interactive teaching and learning. It starts when the teacher either displays or speaks a prepared or ad hoc question. Students can then anonymously key in answers with their remote.  Responses are tallied and displayed on a projection screen or interactive whiteboard instantaneously.

Variety of Question Types

To assess student understanding, you can use a variety of question types, including true or false, multiple choice, numeric response and more-than-one-right-answer. Decimals, fractions and negative numbers can also be incorporated into questions and answers. 

Immediate Feedback

Student response systems provide immediate feedback to students, teachers, and even parents. Once a student completes a test, his or her score is revealed directly on their own responder. This eliminates the typical wait-time a student normally endures after a test. It used to take me an hour to grade a math test and sometimes it took me a few days before I even sat down to grade it. Now, I can spend that time designing lessons to remediate the ones who performed poorly. Furthermore, students are afforded time, right then and there, to analyze their own results: noting which problems they missed and correcting their own mistakes. 

Export to Spreadsheet

From a record-keeping stand point, nothing beats the "export to spreadsheet" feature. These scores can be easily imported into your existing electronic gradebook system (if it supports the "import" feature) or printed out and integrated into a paper-based system. There is even an option to send an e-mail to each student's parents the moment the test is over. (When I told my students I intend to enable this feature in the coming weeks, they looked as if they'd just walked out of a horror movie).

All in all, student responders are effective tools that should be in every teacher's tool box. But as with all technology, the price tag can be prohibitive. The Senteo Response System 32 Pack goes for about $2K. But if integrating technology is a priority for your district, then it's an investment that can lead to an enhanced learning and teaching experience for everyone involved. To read more about the topic of Clickers, check out "7 things you should know about clickers."

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7002.pdf

Resurrect Your Old Technology

Before you think you just ran across a blog that hasn't been updated in years because of the picture of a Palm IIIc, keep reading. This week, my principal asked me to focus on helping students brush up on their multiplication facts during our two-week intersession. I remembered how much fun my students enjoyed using Palm Handheld PDAs in years past, but the ancient classroom set of Palm IIIc devices I had won in a grant several years back were collecting dust on their chargers. Even though I had concerns about lost styli, outdated firmware, and the fact that I hadn't tried to sync a Palm device in over three years, I hesitantly reached into the cobwebs and pulled out a freshly charged Palm IIIc.

After a failed attempt to locate the Palm desktop CD that came with the device nearly a decade ago, I found Palm's desktop manager for Windows XP at Palmone's website and downloaded and installed it, plugged in my cradle, performed my first hot sync in years, and was immediately transported back to 2001. No... "Gone" by 'N Sync didn't spontaneously start playing on my computer, but that old, familiar three-toned, ascending trill reverberated in my ears, indicating that yes, the PC and Palm were back on speaking terms. Then, there was the issue of software-- No problem. I downloaded a few trial basic math fact applications from Handango.com, taught my students how to beam apps to one another, and my students were instantly engaging in fun math games like Missle Math, Herbert's Math Time, Bunny Math, and Math Champ. This week, I found a new appreciation for old technology and a special place in my heart for trial apps! Just because it's old, doesn't mean it's broken. I'm so glad I didn't sell these things on e-bay like I wanted to last year.

Teachers, Jump on this Grant Opportunity!

How many times have you thought to yourself, "If money was no object, I'd buy my students..." Grants are one way we as teachers can attain the resources we know will benefit our students in an outside-the-box manner. This grant is very easy to enter: it's an on-line essay with a 100 word limit. Anyone can enter! Read contest rules carefully - if a student under 18 enters, the parent must have an email address. Entries are open now. Contest will run until August 31, 2008. Read this selection from the grant's website:

Each year the program challenges students, teachers, parents or anyone who knows of a school in need to write an essay regarding the importance of technology in education, and how it can benefit a school in their community. Essays are evaluated by an independent judging committee, and winners earn various awards of Samsung products for their designated school. In the four years since its inception, the program has awarded more than 250 U.S. schools with over $7,000,000 in Samsung electronics and Microsoft software. In 2008, the top winner receives a grand prize of over $200,000 worth of Samsung technology, Microsoft software and cash grants from DIRECTV, as well as the SCHOOL CHOICE® educational television programming package.

Click Here to read more about this grant and to enter. Forward this post to your students and parents. Consider offering the essay topic as a writing prompt or as a "homework challenge." Good luck!