Within a relatively short time frame, Amazon.com launched the Kindle followed by Kindle 2 and Sony launched its latest electronic reader. On the heels of these two revolutionary e-readers, Barnes & Noble will be releasing Nook, their version of an electronic book. Unlike e-readers of the past, these new models offer many features that have school systems and some education advocates pondering whether Kindles or other e-readers should be incorporated into the classroom either in place of or as a supplement to traditional textbooks.

E-Readers offer numerous benefits when incorporated into a classroom setting or an entire educational system. These benefits range from economics to quality of learning and are far reaching enough to demand an audience.

In terms of finances, a standard e-reader will run between $200-300 at current prices. In a public school system, students are typically issued at least six textbooks (math, grammar, literature, science, social studies, an elective, and the potential seventh alternate – health) per year. At an average cost of $75-$100 per new textbook, the e-Reader (even after books were purchased and loaded) would be a comparable price and certainly no more expensive.

A major benefit of using an e-reader in the classroom shines through when one considers the publication date of textbooks. In many schools most textbooks are used for several years in a row. As physical books they cannot be updated and are used even after they are no longer current or are out of date altogether. If e-readers were utilized the books could be updated electronically as new editions were available and cutting edge scientific discoveries or important current events could be studied through publisher provided enhancements.

Another advantage shows up under the heading of note taking. In primary education, students are typically not allowed to write in books or highlight within the text and instead rely on taking pen and paper notes referencing particular passages to study or vocabulary words to look up. With an e-reader, pen and paper notes can become obsolete as a student can digitally underline or highlight important passages and use marginal notations to add supplemental information provided during lectures. Since personalized notes can be stored in a “cloud” provided by the e-Reader manufacturer, if a device malfunctioned this material could be restored. A student could rest assured they would maintain all of their notes from the beginning of a school course to the end within their e-textbook.

E-Readers take nothing from the current educational system but stand to add a lot to the learning experience. In terms of portability, value, and capability, e-Readers could be the next necessity in the classroom and the educational system at large.

Photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivyfield/ / CC BY 2.0