Kindle invades classroom

Amazon's Kindle has made its way into the Baruch classroom. The Kindle purchases and deployment marks the start of a new testing program to justify the purchase of e-readers for students in the college.

The Kindle test program will be used in conjunction with a new computer information systems course called "Green IT." Developed by Professor Kannan Mohan, and Michael Waldman, head of collection management in the Newman Library, the course gives students Kindles preloaded with their textbook for free. The course is funded partly by student technology fees.

Forty 6-inch Kindles and one 10-inch Kindle DX were ordered for the students of this class. The larger Kindle is reserved for students with visual disabilities. The order even includes the new worldwide edition of the Kindle, which allows users to download content through a GSM connection anywhere in the world.

Mohan is extremely excited about the initiative, as were his students when they were informed that they would be part of this program. The BCTC is looking forward to hearing feedback about the devices.

The device becomes the responsibility of the student; if it breaks, the student must pay for the repair. If defective, it will be covered by Amazon. Students also have the option of buying a paperback version of the textbook if they do not want to take on the possibility of having to pay for a damaged Kindle, which costs around $269.

The current Kindle program will test the textbook licensing and device purchasing partnership between Baruch and Amazon. In the future, the school hopes to give each student an opportunity to use e-readers through a loan program similar to how laptops and graphing calculators are loaned to students. Dr. Arthur Downing, Baruch's chief information officer, stressed that the technology that Baruch provides to its students, faculty and staff should be available to everyone.

Future purchases may include e-reader devices from other companies such as Barnes and Noble's Nook, Sony's Reader and even Apple's new iPad. While no company has been able to strike a deal with publishers that truly cater to the educational system, increased competition in the e-reader industry might change that in the near future.

Mohan has been using his personal Kindle for the past few years. He believes that e-readers will enable students to read more, as students will have access to multiple textbooks on one portable and an easy to use device.

The screens on Kindles use a technology called e-ink, which reduces eye strain when read. E-reader devices also allow owners to locally store and have access to thousands of books, magazines and periodicals, both instantaneously and simultaneously.