Legal Research

Princeton?s Kindle Trials with Students

By admin

Good quote from the TOC conference:

“Skip Prichard, President and CEO of Ingram Content Group. Today?s ebooks are warmed over print books and will be changed into something very different in the next five years.”

Taking that quote into the context of eBooks in academia this research is interesting.

Colleges test Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader as study tool
USA Today Feb. 24, 2010

Additionally, The Daily Princetonian covers the just released data from Princeton?s Kindle DX study.

Princeton U. releases Kindle pilot data: After one term of use, the devices failed to impress some students in pilot classes.

The Kindle Review blog has some nice summaries:

“The article has a bunch of positives scattered throughout and they include –

1. It reduced paper usage by approximately 50%.
2. Students liked Kindle?s long battery life, wireless capability, portability, search capability, and ability to have all course documents in one place.
3. Ability to download notes and highlights to PC.
4. Lots of availability of books without having to carry a lot physically.
5. 35% of students said they would buy a replacement eReader if their free eReader (free in return for participating in the study) broke.
6. Professors of all 3 classes testing the Kindle said that with improvements they?d be willing to do another trial.”

“The complete list of negatives -

1. Ill-suited for class readings.
2. Lack of page numbers.
3. Difficult to highlight and annotate.
4. Tiny keyboard.
5. Difficult to use folder structure (think they mean lack of proper Folders feature).
6. 65% of participants said they wouldn?t buy a replacement eReader if their free eReader broke.
7. May be more suited for leisure reading.”

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on February 26, 2010 (boomark / email).