Clearwater (FL) High School eliminating traditional printed textbooks in favor of e-readers

[Ed Barrow]

Here's one way to lighten a student's backpack: say goodbye to textbooks. Clearwater High School next year will replace traditional textbooks with e-readers. The gadgets will be fully loaded with all the textbooks students need, minus all the paper.

For rising junior Bennie Niles, 17, it could mean accessing English, math and physics texts via a hand-held device more on par with the technology he and his peers use every day.

"It gives you the ability to be more fluent," Niles said as he held a Kindle reader. "It helps you have a better understanding and comprehension of the text."

Principal Keith Mastorides said he was inspired to make the switch earlier this school year after campus surveys revealed a desire to integrate more technology with classroom instruction.

"When you think about students today, three-quarters of their day is spent on some kind of electronic device," said Mastorides. "We're just looking at textbooks a little differently."

Though the school hasn't settled on a vendor, school officials are negotiating with Amazon Kindle to try to equip all 2,100 students with the 10-ounce devices this fall.

Already, the school issued e-readers to all 100 of its teachers.



http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/textbooks-ditched-at-clearwater-high-as-students-log-on-to-kindles/1099264

[FLAprogressive]

1. k+r should save some trees

[msongs]

2. and how much will the students pay when they break them? nt

[mod mom]

4. do you realize how expensive text books are and how quickly they become obselete

in some subjects? This is the future of education and the good part is the Texas School board decision on what is contained w/in textbooks won't matter as much.

[jp11]

5. Article says they may offer insurance, I wonder how much will be lost on stolen ones from the school

etc or they would be covered if stolen from school inventory.

Also, not fair, I had to lug around let's say 40lbs of books so should todays arguably lazier students. :(

[LeftyMom]

6. Not much more than one lost textbook costs.

Those fuckers are expensive. A Kindle costs way less than a backpack full of books. I know of at least one kid who was reduced to tears when they found out how much a stolen bookbag was going to wind up costing their family, and that was clear back when I was in school and I'm sure costs haven't come down since.

[RKP5637]

3. Maybe something akin to this is also a way to eventually dump Texas textbooks. n/t

[Starry Messenger]

7. Knowing it was Clearwater, I thought that said e-meters.

Well, interesting. I hope Kindles can't be hacked. The students will be loading pron on there in a heartbeat. And of course, another private corporation gets its hot little hands on public money.

[Nye Bevan]

8. Terrible, terrible idea.

E-readers are great for novels which are read sequentially, but horrible for textbooks, where the reader very frequently flicks back and forth a few pages, or holds a place in one section while reading a few sections forward, etc. Textbooks also have graphics and sidebars that frequently do not translate well to e-books.

I absolutely love my Kindle but would never use it for textbooks.

[pnorman]

9. I was`just getting ready to make the same point!

E-readers should be great for secondary educational aids, particularly if you can copy & paste into a search engine. But a book-in-the-hand makes for much better assimilation of the material.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Great idea

Saves trees too.

[ladjf]

11. Sounds like a feasible and good idea. It will probably take a while

to get the "kinks" out of the system. nt