Will K-12 schools adopt eReaders?

With the launch of the Kindle DX there was lots of commentary about the value of the DX as an academic eReader. After all, text books are expensive and what better device might there be than an eReader with a large display?

Unfortunately, ReadWriteWeb reports that “Forrester warns that universities will be slow to adopt the technology. The schools that Forrester talked to had no plans to encourage students to use the Kindle and the current pilot project only involves a small number of students (50 at Pace, for example).”

Really?

To me, there are several reasons that eReaders are a natural point of adoption in schools:

* Cost. It’s not just the cost of the printed books. It’s all the cost that goes into convincing people to make an investment in the printed books. Offering a subscription model for books is a natural here.

* With the ability to update electronic materials faster than their printed cousins, the eReader would seem to be an obvious choice.

* Weight. The eReaders are a lot lighter than printed titles.

* Once interactivity makes its way into eReaders there’s going to be lots of opportunity here. What do I mean? Touch is an obvious opportunity. Annotation is another. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a “Tablet” eReader in the future.

* Price. eReaders offer a better price point than their general purpose computing counterparts. It only makes sense. Give me a general purpose computing device and I’ll show you a device that’s twice as expensive to operate.

* Sealed, focus devices are easier to control and therefore easier to code for. No 3G needed. Content is all available behind a school firewall.

* eReaders have a book model that fits schools much better. No need for general purpose computing devices. Classrooms already are all about books. No need to retrain teachers.