All of this talk about technology and its application in the classroom got me to thinking about the future of books. Not that long ago, a good friend and I were discussing how the price of books has been steadily increasing over time (mostly comics to be honest . . . but when I started buying comics as a kid they cost fifty cents each, now they cost $3.99 each . . . they are flimsy and only about 24 pages long!). We started talking about how in the future, paper products are going to be a luxury item. At the beginning of this semester, my wife was going "ga ga" over the Amazon Kindle (click to read about the Kindle). She was all fired up about getting it to use for school and her own entertainment. I was completely against it. I am a book lover (a bibliophile if you will). I love everything about books. Heck, I love the smell of old books! She had her heart set on the Kindle, but I argued that it would be death of literature as we know it. I thought reading a book on the Kindle took the "soul" out of reading. She, of course, paid no attention to my ranting and bought the Kindle. I must say . . . after playing around with hers, I am a convert. It is downright amazing. My wife was able to get almost all of the texts she needed this semester in the Kindle format . . . at a fraction of the price. I think that the Kindle would be an excellent resource in the classroom. You would no longer have 5 or 6 large books in your desk or backpack. Everything you need would be on a small, thin (less than 10 ounces) piece of technological magic. I think this could be the wave of the future for books in the classroom, and (much to my surprise) I'm digging it! Check out the video below to see a complete rundown on the Amazon Kindle.
