Monday, October 10, 2011

Ereaders?

Normally on Mondays I like to share a teaching tip for teachers and teacher librarians to give you something new to try for the week.  Today, though, I want to ask a question.  Our district technology people want us to buy some ereaders.

 I'm a proud Kindle owner but I don't think they are designed with libraries in mind.  We have a rep from Barnes and Noble coming to show up their Nooks. And there's always the Sony ereaders.

 But our technolgy people want Ipads.  I tend to think while the Ipads are a multifunction device, it's a bit like giving a kid a Game Boy.  I see what takes place on our computers on a regular basis-- and a lot of it isn't educationally related!  I see the Ipads having the same sort of problem.

 Unfortunately I'm not sure the librarians will have a whole lot of voice in the decision making process so I'm looking for some ideas from people out there--what is your opinion of the various ereaders?  Have you had success with any certain ones?  Do you have problems with Ipads becoming gaming devices rather than ereaders? 

And what about the whole idea of checking out an expensive piece of equipment to students?  I'm more in favor of an electronic platform where kids can download material to their own devices so I'm not constantly worrying about breakage, loss, damage, etc.

Any ideas, suggestions, etc. would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

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