Kindles in the Classroom: Theories, Practices, and Results in a Lower-Division English Course (Innovative Practice)

Theoretically, the Kindle is a promising teaching and learning device for the mobile generation now attending institutions of higher learning. In piloting subsidized Amazon Kindles, however, Princeton University, Case Western Reserve University, Reed College and other institutions have been primarily interested in sustainability benefits, cost savings, and ubiquitous access to resources and only secondarily in how e-readers are impacting student learning. By contrast, our CLU (unsubsidized) Kindle pilot project's main focus was to explore and to identify the practices that would best optimize the Kindle's teaching/learning potential-a potential we recognize as promoting deeper student engagement in critical reading and writing.