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E-PrinceWhen the University announced its Kindle e-reader pilot program last May, administrators seemed cautiously optimistic that the e-readers would both be sustainable and serve as a valuable academic tool. But less than two weeks after 50 students received the free ...(back to the article)
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someone explain to me why it's not strange for the tuitions of 4900 to pay for the expensive gadgets of 50 others
I have a feeling Princeton didn't pay much or anything for the devices...
Dear P10--
First, pretty sure that the 50 Kindles in these three courses were donated free, as part of the "experiment." But even if they were not, many aspects of a university operate on as needed basis, not a market basis. For instance, a science lab course costs much more to offer than a math course (with only a whiteboard and marker as supplies) yet each of these types of course cost the student and parents the same fee. Similarly, a sport such as soccer costs the students the same as football, where the per-athlete costs are much higher.
So in reality, "tuitions" pay for expensive gadgets of ...others" all across the university.
Agreed, Johnny. Not to mention that tuition money hardly goes to the upkeep of such "experiments." P10, what do you think the endowment is for? There's no way a place like this could operate on mere tuition, especially when half the place is on financial aid anyway. (And hello, the founder of Amazon is '86).
forget whether or not princeton paid for the kindles. who is this douche who said "All these things have been lost, and if not lost they’re too slow to keep up with my thinking"?????? seriously? unless you're the next albert einstein, i'm sure you can make do. plus, IT'S A FREE KINDLE. ungrateful little brat.
Unlike 2012's Titanic, I don't think any of us can reasonably claim that we lost out here, least of all on our money. As for the complaints in the article, I can't reasonably take notes directly on e-reserves (what kind of e-reserve has legitimate margins anyway?) and can more easily organize notes in a journal. E-reserves are always a mess by the end of the class anyway, so aside from the pages, it seems perfect.
I think a better policy would be giving every student a copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro.
I hate purchasing expensive books that i'll only read some of for 1 seminar course; or shelling out big bucks for a text book. Adobe Acrobat Pro(the full version) allows students to mark up PDF's and convert scanned images into regular text. That way you can search for terms, sort your comments by date or first letter, highlight, copy and paste text directly into your essay and even send around annotations so that others can view and edit them. And that way your pg markings match up with a physical text.
Since nearly everyone has a laptop (or atlease access to a computer) it seems like a pretty good solution. No new hardware, just some easy to use software.
There are drawbacks, but I'd be willing to stare at my shiny laptop screen for a few hours if it means I don't have to spend $300-400 on books/readings every semester and I have the added convenience of the adobe text mark up technology.
Seems to me that they chose the wrong group of students for this experiment. It might have been a different conclusion if these were given to Engineering or Chemistry Students. Carrying around a 10 ounce Kindle is far easier that lugging around several hundred pages of Organic Chemistry. And I am certain that a Kindle download will be far cheaper than the Bens you'll have to pay for the book. Couple this with avoiding trips to the U-Stoe, no errata sheets, and no need to bother to buy/sell uses texts and the choice is clear. Finding the first occurrance of the words "alkane" within a second sounds like a good deal to me. I'm sure this is a good idea who's time may not be here yet.
First, I'd say this was a pretty small pilot size for such a large and prestigious university. As Jim stated here, a sampling from the sciences would have been nice. It is not like this technology has been around for 50 years. It will grow an develop into a more useful tool soon. Otherwise, it will disappear.
What I'd like to see schools doing, instead, is to provide the course text in other electronic formats so I can choose what device (tool) I want to use to read it and mark it up. Tying the course texts strictly to the Kindle is a bad idea. But, seeing as the founder of Amazon is a Prin. grad, you get the connection. Instead, give me an electronic copy of the text, for half the cost, that I can mark up however I want (Evernote, OneNote, Adobe, etc.).
Mr. Horvath '10 states, "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.” As I understand it, the students can opt out of the pilot and return the device. Why doesn't he stop whining and give it back? Oh - then he wouldn't have this free expensive gadget!