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February 24, 2010
Students at several universities that participated in a pilot program to test Amazon.com's Kindle DX e-book reader said that they felt restricted by the device, but acknowledged that they reduced the amount of paper printed for their classes by nearly 50 percent.
Inside Higher Ed reports that students at Princeton University, Case Western Reserve University and the
"Because it was difficult to take notes on the Kindle," wrote Princeton researchers, "because PDF documents could not be annotated or highlighted at all, and because it was hard to look at more than one document at once, the Kindle was occasionally a tool that was counter-productive to scholarship."
Students also missed the ability to take notes, flip back and forth through pages of their textbook easily, and open several texts at once.
"I expected it to be a really useful tool that would enhance my experience," said Eddie Skolnick, a Princeton student, who was interviewed by The Daily Princetonian, "but it has hindered my studies in a lot of different ways. I wasn't able to absorb the material as well as if I had hard copies of the readings, and I had to deal with a lot of technical inconveniences just from the design of the Kindle."
Michael Koenig, director of operations at Darden, told Inside Higher Ed that the device was not quite ready for academic work. "At the point where you need to highlight and notate in a fairly high-paced classroom--to be able to move back and forth between business cases, class readings, your own notations, your own highlights, your own analysis--it's just not as flexible or nimble as having your paper notes or your laptop right there," he said.
But students at Princeton acknowledged that the Kindle DX was definitely a greener choice than traditional books. "Using this Kindle has made me a lot more conscious of my paper use," noted Tabari Dossett, who was quoted in a university press release. "As a result of this experience, I have decided to not only keep my Kindle, but I have begun to use the Kindle for class readings for this semester. I have begun uploading readings from my computer onto the Kindle, which has also cut down on my printing hundreds of pages of readings so far this semester."
Koenig also told Inside Higher Ed that the Kindle's portability was a definite advantage, particularly for business students who often must keep track of hundreds of texts while traveling for internships and job interviews.
Daniel Kurzer, a visiting professor at Princeton, agreed. "Its portability is its greatest asset," he said in the press release.
Compiled By Yaffa Klugerman
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