Kindles in the Classroom: They've Arrived!

We recently received our twelve Kindles in the mail. It didn't take long at all to rip open the boxes and get our hands on our latest toys...I mean, educational tools.

It turns out Kindles are very easy to set up. It took less than five minutes to connect to wireless, register, and rename a Kindle. There is a handy set up guide included with the Kindle, and there are onscreen directions as well.

To begin you simply plug the USB cord (included) into your Kindle, and then plug in the other end into an electrical outlet to begin charging the unit.  Kindle claims that one charge can last up to an entire week with wireless turned on, and up to two weeks with out wireless turned on. A really cool feature about the USB/power cord is that you can unattach the plug and it reveals a standard USB connection so that you can plug your Kindle into a USB slot on your PC or MAC computer.

Next, you register your Kindles under your Amazon account. You can register as many Kindles under one Amazon account, but you can only share selections among six registered units. With that in mind, my colleague and I each purchased six units a piece. You can also rename your Kindles. We decided to rename our Kindles with our school name and a number to easily keep track of what selections are on each Kindle.

The next post about Kindles in the Classroom will be about what book selections we chose, and the process we undertook to make our choices. We are also looking at subscribing to kid-friendly blogs as a way to incorporate current events. A pricing guide will be included as well.

Stay tuned!

Kindles in the Classroom: Text-to-Speech

This is the second post relating to using e-readers in the classroom. Click here to see the first post.

Nook Simple Touch $139.00

It's nearly time to purchase our e-books for the upcoming school year. We were faced with choosing either the $139.00 the Simple Nook Touch, or the $139.00 Wi-Fi Kindle.*

I am not going to draw this out with a point-counterpoint comparison between the Nook and Kindle. C-Net has done a pretty nice job of that already (see here). No, I am going to focus on one specific feature that became the breeze that bumped us off the fence.

Wi-Fi Kindle $139.00

Text-to-Speech (TTS)
Simply put, the Nook does not offer this feature on any of its e-readers, but Kindle does. We feel this is an important tool to have for students who need that kind of support. The National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials has put together a comprehensive literature review of research articles that support the use of TTS technology in the classroom.







According to the literature review, this is how TTS benefits readers:

• TTS enhanced reading rates and comprehension in struggling adult readers
• 77% of middle school students with dyslexia (small sample) showed increased comprehension with the benefit of TTS
• Students age 10-18 with reading challenges scored "significantly" better in comprehension with the aid of TTS
• Studies found the greater the disability, the more technology elevated comprehension in college students
• In high risk LD preschool students, TTS use resulted in positive gains in the areas of: phonological awareness, word recognition, rhyming, expressive vocabulary, and elision skills (scroll down to Table 1 if you visit the link)
• In grades 8 and 9 students utilizing TTS outperformed students who were not exposed to TTS
• Bimodal reading with TTS can "promote significant improvements in reading fluency and comprehension"

TTS was truly the deciding factor. Even though Kindle has yet to develop a library lending system, we wanted the TTS feature above all the other bells and whistles provided by both devices.

*On another note, we have decided not to go with the less expensive Special Offers Kindle and will purchase ten Wi-Fi Kindles for $139.00 (see number crunching below). I just know that the price will go down once we purchase them!

Stay tuned for the next post which will outline the purchasing of book titles, and provide an update on Amazon's development of borrowing books from libraries using a Kindle.

Number Crunching
10 Amazon Kindles (Wi-Fi) at $139.00 = 1,390.00
That leaves us $610.00 for books.

Kindles in the Classroom: A Year in Fourth Grade

Amazon Kindle

I and a colleague of mine, (who writes for this blog under the name Puzzleman) have successfully written a grant to purchase twelve Kindles. We are thinking about purchasing the $114.00 version that includes advertisements and special offers. We are still doing some research on the advertising content. If the advertising is kosher for kids, then we will be able to purchase Kindles for a less expensive price than originally planned giving us plenty left over for e-books (See number crunching below).

I will continue to post about our journey while we utilize Kindles in the classroom. Some of the future topics will include:

• Getting the best bang for the buck when purchasing e-books
• Different ways to get students to utilize the note-taking feature
• Dictionary use
• Text-to-Speech feature
• Kindle book share feature
• How to assess students by reading their notes
• How to successfully share a limited amount of Kindles between multiple classes
• How will the PDF reader be used
• Durability, longevity of battery, and overall usefulness in the classroom

Soon we will make our purchases and begin the enjoyable task of finding great books for our fourth graders.

If you have any suggestions, or experience with Kindles yourself, please share your expertise.

Number Crunching
$114.00 x 12 = $1,368 (Free 3-5 day shipping)
$2,000 - $1,368 = $632.00 remaining for e-book selections


A Sample of Kindle Store e-Book Pricing (as of June 2011)
Rick Riordan's book, The Throne of Fire sells for $9.29
Wilson Rawls' book, Where the Red Fern Grows sells for $6.99
Beverly Cleary's book, Beezus and Ramona sells for $5.99