Princeton Students Don't Like Free Kindles
When Princeton University administrators brokered a deal to have 50 students receive free Kindle DXs preloaded with their course material for the semester, they were hopeful students would see the devices as useful, sustainable academic tools. Instead, most of the students who received free E-readers say they're dissatisfied with the device and find it inconvenient to use, the Daily Princetonian reports.
"I hate to sound like a Luddite, but this technology is a poor excuse of an academic tool," says senior Aaron Horvath. "It's clumsy, slow, and a real pain to operate."
Horvath added that using the Kindle has forced him to change the way he studies and digests reading material.
"Much of my learning comes from a physical interaction with the text: bookmarks, highlights, page-tearing, sticky notes, and other marks representing the importance of certain passages—not to mention margin notes, where most of my paper ideas come from and interaction with the material occurs," he says. "All of these things have been lost, and if not lost, they're too slow to keep up with my thinking and the 'features' have been rendered useless."
While some professors, like Harriet Flower, find the Kindle beneficial because it is easier on her eyes, professor Stan Katz wants to wait and see if he can teach and students can learn as effectively using a Kindle.
"I require a very close reading of the texts. I encourage students to mark up texts, and . . . I expect them to underline and to highlight texts," Katz says. "The question is whether you can do them as effectively with a Kindle as with paper."
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Reader Comments
hello
(...) even though unrelated to this web site, still www.usnews.com is one must read source on this topic(...)
Text books aren't the same
I am currently a university student, and I agree with the article and with Debora of NJ - reading novels and such for pleasure is a very different creature than studying books for classes. While I have found a PDA to be highly useful for taking my notes in some classes, because it allowed me to organize my information easily as I went, the same is not so true for reading materials.
I treat my school books as the students described, marking them up in many ways, and writing in the margins. I can see some interface options, like making a marker that lets me insert a note or somesuch working for readers like this, perhaps.
--Ember--
technology
Technology, Its great but takes getting used to. I like Technology but I like Linux and will not roll over and support Microsoft. So if kindle works with Linux. I would love to purchase it. Otherwise the technology is useless to me.
People like sheep go where they are told to, Except once in awhile one will stray and check out the rest of the world. The dog could never catch me and I like what I see.
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