Bi-Cultural Day School puts e-books in the hands of students

Boy, they never had anything like this when you were there. Look at the author of the article.

From the Stamford Advocate:
By Jeff Morganteen
Special Correspondent

STAMFORD - Ann Shulman asked her sixth-grade English class a simple question yesterday: "How many books did you schlep here today?"

"A lot," the seven students replied in unison.

Then Shulman revealed her students' new toy - a Sony Reader, an electronic device that is capable of holding up to 80 regular-sized books - to a series of "cools" and "awesomes."

Next week, the students may be schlepping only a single book - one the size of a cell phone and the weight of a single paperback.

The children are part of an educational pilot program between Bi-Cultural Day School and Sony that begins next week. The e-book reader displays text on a 6-inch screen and turns pages with the push of a button.

The school unveiled the devices to its students yesterday. As Shulman walked her class through the e-book's menu screen, one student eagerly jumped ahead of her instructions.

"Mine says George Orwell," said Brad Waldstreicher, an 11-year-old from Stamford.

"That's a famous science-fiction author," Shulman added.

The program began when Robert Zitter, senior vice president of technical operations at HBO and a chairman on the school's technology board, approached Sony this summer with the idea of bringing e-books into the classroom.

Sony provided the school with 25 readers, which are uploaded with books from ebooks.connect.com, a Web site run by the electronics giant. Sony introduced the reader last September.

Pat Seldin, director of technology at the school, said it plans to download books for the readers to fit certain grades' curriculums.

Students in Shulman's class have digital versions of books like "The Da Vinci Code" and "1984," but will read classics like Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass" for class.

Zitter said digital books have been around as long as digital music or video, but the problem was finding an attractive and functional mobile device.

"Publishers will find that this is a less expensive form of distribution than knocking down trees," he said.

But at $300 each, Sony's e-book readers aren't cheap. Book downloads cost $1.99 to more than $20.

Bi-Cultural Day School Headmaster Gerald Kirshenbaum said e-book readers may find a place in the classroom as they appeal to a generation growing up with technology.

"We're pushing books, and sometimes we don't always get takers," he said. "This is an exciting, imaginative and enticing piece of equipment that will get to our goal of increasing their love of literature."