By Stephen Windwalker
Editor of Kindle Nation Daily
©Kindle Nation Daily 2010
This is one of the first of hundreds of similar “Kindle receiving” photographs that are going to be taken in high schools and colleges all over the world in the next couple of years.
Thanks to the Kindle Educators’ Group for emailing this pretty amazing photograph of Clearwater (FL) High School Principal Keith Mastorides from the St. Petersburg Times with some of the 2,100 new Kindle 3s
The Times story says everyone at the high school is “giddy with anticipation” about the new Kindles, and one senior even used Apple’s R-word: “Everyone I’ve talked to is excited to get one,” said Heath Anderson, 17, a senior who helped unpack the Kindles last week. “It’s revolutionary really.”
What’s clear about this sign of the coming wave of change is that schools that adopt the Kindle will soon achieve the critical mass that will make textbook publishers listen to the demand that they must provide their content in Kindle-compatible form. We’ve heard a lot in the past two years about the Kindle not being textbook-compatible, but within another two years the conversation will be flipped and the question will be about whether textbooks are Kindle-compatible.
Principal Keith Mastorides also points out that the Kindle’s free wireless connectivity and Webkit web browser will help to “bridge the digital divide, providing Web access for students who previously had none at home.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m going to printing out this article for the principal of my son’s middle school this week. I’m sure that Clearwater High didn’t have to pay $189 each for the 2,100 Kindles it just bought, and it strikes me that Amazon should go public with a device-and-content discounting program for secondary schools, colleges, and their students. Apple has been doing it with Macs for years.
