Will Amazon Kindle Change Education?

Amazon.com is touting their new product, the Amazon Kindle, as the most revolutionary device since the wheel. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but the device is clearly meant to make waves for the company. Is it worth the $400 price tag?

It sounds like a great device. You can access more than 88,000 books for $9.99, read more than 250 top blogs, and enjoy unlimited access to Wikipedia.

Sony had a similar idea with their reader product. Where the Kindle expands on Sony's idea is in the way you access new material. All of this comes wirelessly to your unit via the same technology that your cell phone uses, so you never need to find a hot spot to find new content.

I think this will be a wildly popular item for people who are on the go and don't want to carry a library with them to keep in touch with the latest news and blogs.

I also think that with some tweaking, it could have tremendous potential for educational applications. Imagine if students could each be given such a device. Their Kindle would contain all of the textbooks for the year, as well as any other novels or books being discussed. They could be given access to newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals to peruse up to the second information. I'm sure with some tweaking, the unit could even be made to receive news and announcements relevant to the school district. If all of this were available to the students at school or at home via the cell signal, it could really change the way we deliver information to our students.

This is definitely a piece of technology I will be watching with excitement!

Welcome to the Blog....

This blog was created with the intention of helping teachers to make sense of all the technology available to us. After giving an in-service not long ago, I realized that most teachers have no idea how easy and how available these tools are.

I think that technology is becoming more and more crucial to giving our students a full and rewarding education. In our fast paced world with so much information, our students must be trained to find and understand this information and the tools for using and managing it. I find and hear and read about so many different websites, software titles, and pieces of hardware that can be used in the educational setting. I hope that this blog will serve as a tool to spread the word about these educational tools and also give me an avenue for learning about new ones.

When I come across something useful, I will talk about it here. I hope that other teachers will find it useful.