The Argument for Kindles in Schools
“The Kindle’s proprietary document format means textbooks can’t be ported easily, and its browser is inadequate for anything but cursory use. And, as the Daily Princetonian reported yesterday, its note-taking tools aren’t exactly stellar. Another stumbling block: Colleges and universities make a decent profit from textbook sales, and might be loath to give up a cash cow for an e-book device that will likely yield a slimmer margin.”
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Regarding the Kindle’s format and tools, the market will drive the future – if not the hackers! Just ask Apple how easy it is retain control of a proprietary format!
I agree the profit motive probably has college bookstores worried, but they should be trying to get ahead of the curve. If a deal is cut so that only college bookstores can sell the books, they can probably maintain or maybe increase their margin – no printing, shipping, stocking, storage or display costs, reduced staffing, etc. But if publishers start selling online at a lower cost, the college bookstores may as well get out their brooms and start trying to sweep back the tide!
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I just participated in a Webinar yesterday on e-books for college. There are many models, the kindle solution being one. Others are billing students $49 for a standard e-book download from the publisher, and that e-book can be integrated right into the course LMS site. Pros: cost savings for the students, sometimes as high as 70%; semi-customizable content for the prof. Cons: some students hate e-books and end up printing them out, which costs $$; college bookstores feel they will lose profit. Then there’s open source textbooks (OER) – that may be where the real gains lie in cost savings, flexibility, and multimedia content.