Kindle vs. Hard Copy

Kindle vs. Hard Copy

The Kindle is an electronic book. Not just any book; it can hold up to 200 titles, access newspapers and magazines, and email. Sound amazing!? The Kindle is an electronic book put out by Amazon. It works much like an IPod downloading music.

By connecting to the network EVDO, a free wireless network, the owner of a Kindle can purchase reading material, access email, and preview books. The battery lasts up to 2 days and can be charged in 2 hours. Unlike a laptop, the screen is not hard to see in the sun light, in fact, it reads much like a text book.

Why is this important, because this may be the wave of the new library? In Ashburnham, Mass. at Cushing Academy, they have got rid of 10,000 books in their library and are planning on getting rid of the other 10,000 books. They decided to go this route because of the lack of use of both the library and the books. They tracked that less than 30 books were being checked out on some days, which is 0.15% of their books. Their answer, get rid of the books and bring in the Kindle.

The heat that was received over this switch was an expensive espresso machine (12K), cost of the Kindle, technology becoming obsolete, and the sentimental value of the books. The 12 thousand dollar machine was a huge debate, but it did bring in new customers and they will be able to sell their drinks. The cost of the Kindle at $259 was justified that the books are at most $9.99 from Amazon and as cheap as $5 compared to $30 for a hard copy book. The other fear is that the technology will become obsolete in 10 years where as hard copy books have not changed much in 100 years. Finally, people just hang onto books. They get sentimental and think that it is against the rules to throw things out.

I think that this move is bold and on the cutting edge. I just heard about the Kindle 3 weeks ago. I know; I had to come out from under my rock. We also landed on the Moon! They are a neat little technology. Why hinder technology if it is cost effective, efficient, gets the job done and kids love it.

I do support their idea of keeping some of the texts around in order to use the hard copy versions. I think that the Kindles will increase student usage of the library and will be easier to use for research with the 360,000 titles that Amazon has to offer. Without innovation and stepping out into the unknown, the Portobello mushroom would have never been discovered. Yes, some people have gotten sick, but progress was made. I think that we need to step out as educators and try out new technology.

What do you think?

Philip

Something Positive

One of the great currently in my life uses the phrase, "you get a lot more out of people by giving them honey instead of vinegar." I have just realized that this is my 8th blog, and I am not sure how much honey I have been putting on the educational system. I have been voicing opinions on subjects, but they have not had a lot of positive overtones. So, this week will be a step in a different direction.


Rural school in New Mexico goes from poor academic performance to great in 3 years. George Bickert the principal built his success off of building relationships with kids. Lovin' on them with hugs, high fives, and early morning basketball games. He believed in his staff also. The other thing he did was threw out boring assessment names like "curriculum based measures" and replaced them with Math Monster and Cougar Readers.

D.C. schools are also trying this. They understand that if you look at any company or situation you can choose to point out the bad or the good. They are choosing to campain and promote the good.

I am here looking for current, positive news and striking out. So anyone commenting on this blog, please insert some positive news on the education systems in place.

One positive thing that I have seen in schools is students ability to pick up sarcasm! Our students are amazing at picking up social sarcasm. Sarcasm in a fun, joking sense. Try it sometime. Many times I use sarcasm instead of getting mad and frustrated at a student. Instead of blowing up and telling a student to stop playing with his pile of pencil lead that he has been collecting all month, I will say, "Jim Bob, if I see those out on your desk again, I will sell them on EBAY and use the money to advertise and promote to your mother a campain to ground you for the rest of your life." The student smiles, gets the point, no one is frustrated and we move on. I have found that students rise to our expectation. If they are low they will meet it, if high, they will also.

Give me some posiitve highlights for the last 2 weeks.

Maybe schools are getting TOO much $$$$$

With all the debate about the education system in the world, a lot of talk is about how much money to give them. In fact, a lot of the talk is about how much MORE money to give the schools. What if they are getting too much money already? In this article, Ben Chavis claims that schools do not need more money. Ben Chavis was the principal at American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland, CA.

He claims that the stats do not back up the money. In the article, he claims that some Oakland, CA schools have a $602 million budget for there school year and more than 90% of their students fail. Mr. Chavez turned his school around with less than $8,000 per student. (This seems really high by itself) By using the motto, "If you act like a winner, you'll be treated like a winner. If you act like a fool, you'll be treated like a fool." According to Mr. Chavez, the school excelled in everything including physical fitness.

I love it. It is a great motto to live and teach by. Many times in the education world, we teach students that no matter how badly or inappropriately they behave, we are going to do anything at their beckoning call. There are no consequences for their actions, and we would NEVER call someone a FOOL. Students need to realize the direct connection between actions and consequences. If you are responsible and respectful, you get more privileges and opportunities. If you are a fool, you can not be trusted.

"The American public has been conned into believing that public schools need more money." Chavez is on to something here. We need to understand that money is not the answer to all of our troubles.

One thing that I disagree with is the negative flavor that the article gives to administrators when it comes to money. I do feel that people receiving stimulus money should be held accountable, but private companies have proven to spend the money foolishly and need to be monitored closely. Of course administrators always want more money, but for the most part, it is for the kids. They are not getting personal gain out of more money for their schools. This article may change the focus off of the money issue and change it to more improvising with the money the do have. Maybe by being held accountable, schools will be pressured into spending their money wisely as well.
Philip