Kindle DX
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Purpose of Project
Princeton was one of six colleges and universities that participated in projects testing the KindleDX e-reader, joining Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Reed College and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia
The project was sponsored by the Princeton University Library, the Office of Information Technology at Princeton, and the High Meadows Foundation, whose mission is “to support environmental sustainability; and to support a community of human interest through collaboration, inclusiveness and common values.”
Project Goals:
1. A major aim of the pilot was to help determine if e-readers can cut down on the use of paper at Princeton, without adversely affecting the classroom experience.
2. The second was to determine if using this technology in the classroom could equal (or better) the typical classroom experience where more traditional readings were used. 3. The third sought to explore the strengths and weaknesses of current e-reader technology to provide suggestions for future devices. E-reader technology offered the promise of delivering a large number of digitized documents on a lightweight device with a long battery life, and a display that mimicked the reflective qualities of actual paper.
The consumer market in e-readers had already proved it was possible to read on these devices; we sought to see if they could be useful in higher education by conducting a pilot using e-readers in several courses.
More info:
A driving factor in the launch of this pilot was the patterns of printing on campus. Statistics show that students are not reading digital articles and book selections on their computer screens, but rather downloading the same files again and again, and printing them multiple times in the course of a semester. With an e-reader, one can easily carry a year's worth or more of course readings in a lightweight device, can search for content, and can annotate, bookmark, or highlight readings. The e-reader pilot at Princeton seeks to target the types of readings that are most downloaded, printed, photocopied at Princeton—which is to say the electronic and print reserve materials required for many courses—and deliver them by means of an e-reader instead.
Three Courses in the Pilot
The courses selected for the e-reader pilot:
- Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs/American studies undergraduate course
"Civil Society and Public Policy," taught by Stanley Katz, director of the University's Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies and lecturer with the rank of professor at the Wilson School - Woodrow Wilson School graduate-level course
"U.S. Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East," taught by Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt and a visiting professor in the Wilson School - Classics graduate-level course
"Religion and Magic in Ancient Rome," taught by Harriet Flower, professor of Classics.
51 students participated and several staff members also received Kindles.
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