Studies have shown the kindle is not robust enough for most classroom settings. Lack of note taking, slow page turning, etc. slowed down classes and caused students to eventually print out assignments:
I pretty much agree with that and prefer my iPad for those types of things. But the Kindle will evolve and just the thought of getting away from the textbook fix would be nice.
If Amazon Kindles were starting to appear in schools, iPads and Apple would be right there. Apple has always been good about getting computers into schools.
The textbook industry got so crazy that most kids have TWO of each now because they need them for school and home, because the 5-6 2 inch thick books of outdated materials are too heavy. So what is more kludgey and when could you ever really write in books themselves? I never wrote in textbooks even though I bought them and never took the time to sell them. Can't people take notes outside the book?
Plus if you have Kindle accounts/books you can also pull these on other devices (maybe now) and especially laptops and PCs.
My university tried this and got sued for it. These things are not yet ready for prime time because they are not accessible enough for those with disabilities.
Wow, if anything I would feel ebooks would make it more accessible for the blind by being usable in braille readers and text-to-speech! This was a lawsuit that shouldn't of happened.
Theoretically, yes, but devices which do not output all of a book's text to anything which claims to be a Braille reader are easier to develop DRM for.
It would certainly be good for their image if they supported blind users (apart from the existing text-to-speech function).
However, a general interface to a Braille display is necessarily one which transmits the letters of the book in reading order, so I don't see how they can implement that without opening up a big gap in their DRM.
I expect that is more likely to make a bigger difference since it has buy-in from the publishers, BN effectively runs most the college bookstores, you can type faster with a keyboard, and most students don't want to carry a ton of books. Would be nice if it supported Latex for Math/Physics notes.
