Amazon's new Kindle DX

Amazon's new Kindle DX. which can hold 3,500 books

The new Kindle DX, Amazon Inc’s  electronic reading device will be released on five American campuses during the Fall of 2009, when students will substitute their textbooks for the Kindle’s new, larger screen that will allow users to highlight, take notes, and scour school libraries.

The Kindle DX will feature  a 9.7-inch screen, compared to the 6-inch screen on the original Kindle as well as a built-in QWERTY keyboard for note taking. The handheld reader will let customers read magazines, newspapers, and textbooks complete with images and graphics. Users also can read PDF files on the Kindle DX–a selling point for faculty members whose courses regularly assign class readings on PDF files.

Officials at colleges and universities that will use the new Kindle device will  track how the Kindle DX affects learning.

“Is this the watershed device of electronic text readers we’ve
been waiting for?” asked Marty Ringle,
chief technology officer at Reed College in Portland, Ore.,
which will give Kindles to students in three courses next fall.
“Or is it a just another evolutionary step on the way to that
revolutionary device? We’ll see if it’s a viable alternative to print media.
“The Kindle DX holds enormous potential to influence the way students learn,”
said Barbara R. Snyder, president of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland,
another Kindle DX pilot school. “We look forward to seeing how the device affects
the participation of both students and faculty in the educational experience.”

Participating universities are Case Western,  Reed College , Pace University, Arizona State University, and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business as the first campuses to distribute Kindle DX to students in August when they return for the fall semester.

The Kindle DX–which retails at $489–can store 3,500 books, 2,000 more than its predecessor. There are more than 275,000 electronic books available in Amazon’s Kindle library. Readers also will be able to access international newspapers and magazines and more than 1,500 blogs.

Textbook industry experts said Kindle’s book library would have to grow before educators recommended it over traditional options.

Users can buy books in the Kindle library for as little as $10 apiece, and newspaper subscriptions on Kindle are significantly cheaper. Widespread use of the Kindle DX as a replacement for traditional textbooks could save the average student hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars every year. A 2005 Government Accountability Office report showed that the average student at a four-year college spent $900 per year on textbooks.
Reported on May 6th, 2009 As found on http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=58654
cited from Dennis Carter’s article