Kindle DX: First Step Towards E-Textbooks For Colleges?

On the heels of the Kindle 2, Amazon announced pre-order sales on another version of their popular e-reader.  This new piece of hardware will be known as the Kindle DX.

The Kindle DX display screen is 2.5 times larger than the Kindle 2, 9.7″ diagonally to be exact.  The reason for the larger screen is to accommodate full pages of text. (10.5″ x 7″)  The Kindle DX boasts a screen resolution of 1,200 x 824 pixels which rivals some smaller laptop displays

As a current college student, I know the high costs and trouble academic textbooks can bring.  Friends of mine often have as many as eight different academic texts.  I just picked up some of my roommates textbooks here in our room, many are 800-1200 pages long and weigh anywhere from 4.2 lbs to 6.5 lbs.  Now stick three or four large textbooks plus a laptop and you have some serious weight on your back!   I’m sure many health care professionals would love to see an e-reader replace textbooks, especially if they filter to younger school children.

What is really interesting and promising for Amazon is the heightened interest from universities across the country.  Amazon already has a test pilot program setup at Arizona State, Case Western Reserve, Princeton, the University of Virginia and Pace university.  Students and faculty will be issued a new Kindle DX next fall with no increase in tuition or other fees.

The positive impact for academic institutions is clear.  Obvious benefits for the student, less costs in production and transporting of texts and a much greener impact on our environment

“Our interest in the pilot is to provide Amazon and other vendors with information on what our students and faculty need in such devices to make them successful,” said Serge Goldstein, associate CIO and director of academic services at Princeton. “The ability to deliver textbooks in a format that doesn’t require paper is probably inevitable.”

These universities are early adopters who will get to see first hand how e-readers could work in an academic environment.  I feel the Kindle DX could work quite well.  However, it is not perfect.

E-readers may not fit well with science courses like biology or chemistry.  Science texts are often filled with vivid graphics that are crucial supplements to the text.  A black and white e-reader like the Kindle DX would not do well in that situation.  We are just on the tip of the iceberg.  These e-readers will continue to get smaller, lighter and even more impressive with their capabilities.  High resolutions color display readers are able to be produced, but the cost to produce them is unrealistic to roll out in large quantities.  Costs will come down and improvements will be suggested as these pilot programs are completed around the country.

It is my belief e-readers like the Kindle DX will become standard on college campuses nationwide in the future.  It will take some time for profitable models to be developed and buy-in from universities and students alike.  However, this shift is inevitable in my strong opinion.