To complete the saga of my experience with Kindle Library Lending through Overdrive, the expiration date of my books arrived over the weekend. Helpfully, I received warning emails about all four books about three days in advance, each with an offer to buy the book included. More importantly, these tipped me off to the opportunity…
Kindle Usability
The Three Keys to Kindle Book Borrowing through Your Public Library
by Will DeLamater
Now that Amazon and Overdrive have completed their deal to make Kindle titles available through Overdrive’s client libraries, the web has been astir with commentary on the roll-out, which was announced last week. It was a much awaited moment for Kindle owners, who have decried their inability to borrow books from the public library, as…
What Educators Need to Know About Kindle Synchronization
by Will DeLamater
August 23, 2016: Should you de-synchronize your Kindles? As my lawyer might say, it depends. If you are a teacher or librarian, and you want students who are reading a copy of a book that is shared among six Kindles, the answer to the question for you may very well be YES. Let me explain.…
Beg, Borrow, But Please Don’t Steal: How to Share E-Books at School (and at Home)
by Will DeLamater
UPDATE: Read the latest instructions for sharing a Kindle book: How to share your Kindle books How to share e-books among as many readers as possible is a matter of great interest to educators. Right now, there are basically three ways to leverage e-books to increase distribution of titles in schools: 1. Sharing (books among…
One Little Control That Makes a Difference for Educators
by Will DeLamater
One of the most consistent questions over the years about Kindle management concerns how to disable the ability to make purchases directly from the device. For educators, this is almost a show-stopper with Kindle. This uber-consumer reading device, designed with book purchases in mind, makes it just too darned easy to buy a book, and…
Kindle Phone Home: Getting 80 Kindles Ready for Kids, Part 2
by Will DeLamater
Once Kathy’s helper-husband Steve had all the Kindles out of their boxes, numbered with stickies, and charging peacefully, the time had come for Kathy to swing into action. It was time to reconnect each Kindle with the Amazon software that would allow Kathy to manage content for each of the Kindles online. Unlike you or…
Getting 80 Kindles Ready for Kids
by Will DeLamater
I had the pleasure of spending a day with Kathy Parker last week to learn how she sets up all the Kindles the district purchased for Seneca Grade School’s entire eighth class for the coming school year. It is quite a process! I have noted in many previous posts that the Amazon Kindle is first…
More Research Says Bigger Fonts Help Kids Read
by Will DeLamater
Once I started digging in to why everyone seems to crank up the font size on the Kindle, more and more evidence has been sent my way. I want to thank Kerrie Smith, the Australian teacher and LEO at Education.au, for pointing out another significant research compilation on the importance of variable text size. This…
It’s Not the Kindle, Stupid! It’s the Text…
by Will DeLamater
As a blogger on a topic tied to a specific device, the Kindle, it has been easy to overlook the real hero of the ebook revolution, and that is the digital text itself. The virtues of ebooks for schools reside not in the features and benefits of a specific reading device, despite what the pundits…
Should You De-Synchronize Your Kindle?
by Will DeLamater
September 26, 2016 Should you de-synchronize your Kindle? As my lawyer might say, it depends. Let me explain. Amazon makes it possible for you to read a book that you have purchased on whatever reading device that you happen to have with you at any time, as long as two requirements are fulfilled: Requirement 1:…