According to a report released by The New Democratic Leadership Council – a Washington think tank formed in 1985 – all of America’s 56 million K-12 pupils should be supplied with an electronic book reader of some type. In a paper titled “A Kindle In Every Backpack”, authored by Thomas Z Freedman, it is proposed that this would reduce costs and allow for texts which are constantly updated.

Government spending on traditional printed textbooks currently runs at $109 per student. According to Mr. Freedman’s report the initial costs for the supply of electronic readers would be around $200 currently, reducimg to $80 per student by 2012. Who would fund this initiative is not defined in the paper – but it seems reasonable to assume that the government would foot the bill.

According to the paper, the benefits of the plan would include the ability to update academic textbooks quickly, the possibility to run interactive educational programs – including tests and quizzes and a reduced weight to be carried by students. Environmental aspects are not mentioned in the report, but there would almost certainly be a huge reduction in the volume of paper consumed by the academic textbook publishers every year.

The Amazon Kindle reader is cited several times throughout the report – but the possibility of using other brands is also noted. One potential problem with the current design of Kindle may be the suitability of its display for rough handling. There is at present a class action suit raised against Amazon regarding cracking face plates and screens. This seems chiefly concerned with Kindles which have had covers fitted to them and may not imply any fault in the device itself. However, it would probably be unreasonable to expect young students to show greater care when handling their Kindles than adults who have financed the device themselves. Therefore, it might be necessary to develop a “ruggedized” version of the reader, suitable for the inevitable dings and scrapes which should be expected during the academic year.

There does seem to be an ever increasing air of inevitability regarding the move to digital textbooks. Californian governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, recently confirmed that California would commence furnishing free electronic textbooks in August of 2009. California’s program makes no specific mention of the Kindle but, even so, Amazon executives must have been delighted with both the announcement and the immediate implementation of the scheme. Amazon also have partnership agreements with a number of universities and academic publishers already in place. It really is starting to seem more like “when” rather than “if” electronic textbooks will become part of the mainstream.

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