Kindle to school for a week here is how it went - Tom's Hardware Guide

Hello to all readers of Tom’s Hardware, my name is Adrian, I’m 16 years old and am a student of High School. A few weeks ago I tried to replace the books I had with an ebook reader digitizing all the paper that I had , with the exception of philosophy, but we will see this later.

Our school has all classes with a interactive whiteboard , which is useful during lessons and that would logically to change the type of teaching within the classes to make it digital.

Kindle

Reader and study materials

this experience I used a Kindle Paperwhite 2013 edition only Wi-Fi, combined with the smartphone (an LG Nexus 4) to provide the connection during the lesson in case it might be useful. As for books, there were the classics of a High School: Italian Literature, Mathematics, English, Philosophy, History, Physics, Latin Literature, Art History, Chemistry.

Why an ebook reader?

ebook choice I made for three main reasons: cost , fatigue to the eyes and attention at school . The cost, in spite of having less influence in the choice, however, plays an important role: an ebook cheap as the Kindle has a price starting from € 59 for the most basic version, to get to € 129 for Paperwhite. The digital book allows you to depreciate faster than the cost of the ebook reader and give a considerable savings over time (the books cost a few Euros cheaper than the printed edition ). A decent tablet (such as a Nexus 7 from 229 €) costs much more: it certainly offers more features, but only using it to read books is useless.

fatigue to the eyes is what i was directed more towards the choice of the ebook : a backlit screen for 5 hours or more per day (depending on the school you attended) for about 200 days per year, multiplied by 5 years (rising to 8 if you start to use it to college), because a considerable effort in the eyes, everything you need to add the home study and would be absolutely unbearable for eyes. The ebook offers a non-backlit e-ink screen: readable without problems in school , it will not affect the reading and sufficiently defined.

E-ink versus LCD

attention in school is another point to be reckoned with a tablet I would probably play all day for its functionality, which would make me worse academic performance, as it I could stay attentive during class, especially during the most boring. The ebook is limited to a browser virtually unusable, so I could use it only for reading.

Availability of digital books

was not available in any book format. epub compatible with the Kindle Paperwhite (and most of the ebook readers). This complicates things, as it is a format much more versatile as regards the management of the text.

The alternative would be

the PDF, but it is an absolutely impractical format for this type of book, as lack of adaptation of the text can not be a problem for some, but for others who visually impaired closely you might find in trouble, especially with small text. However it would be less of a problem if the books were available in PDF: any book that I put at the disposal diogitale version, but all in need of a dedicated application only available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linus, iOS and Android. I have not lost heart, however, I used OCR software to convert to PDF all the texts that I had , a long and tedious job, but getting good results.

The only exception was the Divine Comedy: I ??found on the Kindle store a digital version of the same, and it was free.

books to be scanned can also be many

pity that those who buy the paper book will often have to buy back the digital version: the mixed version expected by the government is useless, as the additional features available in my books are not considered by any professor , and the waste is even greater considering for example that the school that I attend has invested last year several money for the installation of IWB in every classroom and tutt ‘now are only used to replace the traditional blackboard.

Confort

first day with the ebook was rather strange: I put it in my backpack just the ebook and some notebook where do the exercises. I left home the books I had: is pretty massive and that the backpack on Monday made a not insignificant burden. The other days were much more natural, but still the difference from the paper is obvious: , so I decided for the last 3 days of the week, use only a bag for books, much more versatile.

school usage is simple and comfortable furnishings: in case you need to go to a specific page, no longer have to search for the page flipping, but only look up the word , all of which is quite handy, so will reset the search times, it may seem trivial, but once you try it you will never go back.

The convenience is also in the fact that you have all the books there, including dictionaries and anything else .

The difference is striking

Highlighting a word, you can also look at Wikipedia or the dictionary, so as to make more in-depth lessons. Definitely simple to follow were the lessons of Mathematics and Physics , as they could move quickly from theory to exercises and vice versa.

clipboard, notes, highlights and bookmarks

notes On the other hand we must make a distinction: real notes, and notes. As far as known, there are no particular problems: simply highlight a word and click add note. There will slow down a bit ‘, but in the end the result is satisfactory and easily accessible, the study is quite fast and without major hitches.

The biggest problem are the notes true In fact, if a professor faithfully follows the book, there is no problem, just use the notes. However, if the professor relies little on the book, the speed of the Kindle is totally inadequate to take notes . It happened with philosophy, with which I have had to resort to paper to take notes, since the lessons were completely “dropped” by the book. However, the problem can be solved quite easily: just combine all’ebook reader a notebook.

The notes are very useful

As for the highlights, they leave the time they are: it can be useful in a book, but I did not find the same comfort that I had with the book paper . This is mainly due to the fact that the notes and highlights are of the same shade of gray: a first look confused with the notes and highlights that slowed me down, not just the study.

bookmarks instead are definitely convenient, simple and quick: I can mark pages that I want without any problems, and is very quick to pick up where I left off.

Conclusion

past week with the ebook reader has been quite variable. The book I missed several times, mostly for convenience as the notes and highlights. All this despite the Kindle tries to replicate: a comparison, however, is uneven. But the undeniable fact of lightweight backpack : several pounds lighter feel on your shoulders, and it is a major change compared to the paper, almost to pass some flaws in the background.

The real problem is that publishers do not provide proper formats for ebook reader. Yes there are books for the tablet, but it is not very healthy for the view. It would be the responsibility of the publishers to make books available for all platforms and perhaps propose to those who already have the paper the digital edition for free or at a much reduced price (around € 4-5).

It is also necessary to combine all’ebook still a notebook for the exercises, or to the clipboard.

It makes sense to digitize books? Depends on what you look for: just ask for lower prices to libraries just to save money, but if you want to give the weight of the paper, the ebook reader is the right choice. With a little ‘practice, you can be quick to use, without affecting school performance.

thank Adriano for sharing his expertise in the field.