While they are still in the market for a vendor and making efforts to arrange matters of budgeting and potential purchase bundling discounts, Clearwater High(Clearwater, FL) has made known its intent to move the student body over to the use of the Kindle as a replacement for the traditional textbook collection that students have always known and “loved”.
The intention is to supply all 2100 students with a Kindle that comes preloaded with every book they will require for the academic year. Students will not be given the ability to purchase further books on the school property, but it seems likely, given the fact that students will have internet access, that there will be the ability to transfer privately acquired eBooks as desired. In order to reduce parental concerns and school liability somewhat, all students will be required to sign a form agreeing to avoid accessing inappropriate material on their eReaders via the internet browser.
There is no guarantee that this move will save the school money. It is intended more as a way of connection with a student body far more at home in front of one electronic device or another than behind a book. With luck, giving these students just what they’re used to in non-academic settings as a component of their learning will increase interest and focus on what they need to do. The recent addition of Facebook integration probably won’t hurt much either, sadly.
I’ll say also that it’ll be a boon to the body of the student as well- lugging around 50+ pounds of books every day is a great way to give kids bad backs.
I wonder if the school has considered that, by switching to an eReader solution, they could probably eliminate lockers in the hallways? Perhaps times have changed, but back during my high-school days the administration was always concerned about what students were keeping in their lockers… so doing away with them might be a strong selling point for many schools.