E-readers and Universities

Last year I created a internal memo at the University of Wisconsin — Stout, Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, about e-readers and their future on college  campuses.  For those uninitiated, UW-Stout is a leader in technology with a high percentage of smart classrooms and providing high quality Macbook’s and HP notebook’s to their students.  Every student on this campus has a laptop.  I think it would be a natural progression to have UW-Stout look into providing their students with this new technology. 

When the Kindle first came out I was excited about it’s potential, but it had many limitations that would make it insufficient for an academic enviornment. It was a non-color screen, so science textbooks would be all but useless no the device.   There was no way to make notes in the margins or alter anything on the screen; us college folks love our little notes in the margins.  I knew that this technology was heading somewhere but it was still in the early stages. 

Now comes the Apple iPad. (cue cheesy music)  A beautiful color screen and plenty of computing power making this a legitimate contender in the ever expanding “how small can I get my personal computing device” race.  It works as a beautiful e-reader and solves some of the problems the Kindle had for use in academic settings.  Some schools are brave enough to jump on the bandwagon early, like Seton Hill University.

“Most of Seton Hill’s 2,145 students will have to pay up to $800 a year in additional technology fees for an expanded wireless network and support system.

And Seton Hill says students may still need to buy textbooks. “We believe the iPad will make e-textbooks more viable to assign and use,” said Kary Coleman, media relations director for the school, in an emailed statement”  (Wall Street Journal)

Some schools are early adopters of the iPad, but Kary makes a good point.  This platform as a digital textbook locker will really take off when publishers start pushing their content to online stores, and that change is coming.   Google is opening an e-book store by this summer while other digital book stores continue to expand their content offerings daily. 

Devices like the Apple iPad and others still in development will look to revolutionize the education industry.  No more heavy backpacks and notebook paper flying all over the room.  A seamless and organized experience, interacting with all your textbooks and notes in one digital environment.   It’s truly an exciting thought.

The shift is occuring, who will be those first “leaders” in this new technology and embrace “e-reader like” devices for textbooks and content creation among students?  It’s still early, but they’re coming.

Want to see the shift that is occurring in action?  Watch this…