Nook vs Kindle

[Allison Farmer]

Recently the administrators at my HS purchased 1 Kindle and 1 Nook to see which works best in a public school setting. We have yet to roll it out fully to the students; however, the ones who come into my office found the Kindle to be the most user friendly. At the same time, the Nook is sleeker and the color screen is appealing. We also discovered it takes more "clicks" to get to highlight a sentence or go back to the menu with the Nook. Furthermore, if you have thicker fingers it may be harder to use the touch screen on the Nook.

I will post again once we have had students fully use both and see which they think is best.

How are other schools handling the fact that you can access the internet with the Kindle? I am also curious to see what contracts look like that parents and students sign in order for students to take the e-readers home.

[Susan Denny]

Thanks Allison. Yes, I have spoken with Kathy Parker. She is a terrific resource. I think I am going to go with the Kindle since it is a good tried and true product. MOst reviews give it a high rating as well.

[Allison Farmer]

The only thing I know of that you can do with the Kindle is go to settings and shut off the Wi-Fi. That will stop people from getting onto the internet. However, a student can very easily turn it back on. The internet does go through a wireless 3G network connection so your filters would not be in place. The Nook does not have the internet (yet). I believe there is a woman on here (Kathy) who lends out Kindles regularly to her students. That would be a good question for her. We are still experimenting on a beginner level. That said, I still think the Kindle is more user friendly.

[Susan Denny]

Hi Allison, I am very interested in your results. We are planning to get a class set of ereaders at our school. I am very unsure which one to get since there ar e so many choices. I am wondering if there are any with no Internet connection? I'm at a middle school and I am concerned about this since I believe the access is through a phone service rather than the firewalled school service. Do you know anything about this?