Kindle for Textbooks launched by Amazon

A larger version of the Kindle, which allows users to read books online, has been created for those wishing to read newspaper or academic texts.

Some universities in America, such as Case Western Reserve University in Colorado, have given some students Kindles and given some textbooks.

I hope the students had a choice on what to use. Learning at university is different for every student. Some people prefer textbooks, some prefer reading on an electronic device.

During my English Literature BA at Sussex University, or my MA in Journalism at Westminster, I wouldn't have wanted to use a Kindle.

I enjoyed sitting on the green outside Arts A or on the beach in Brighton reading a paperback copy of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine or a selection of war poetry.

Where I can see an increase in the use of Kindles, though, is among students who have to carry around heavy textbooks, such as science students.

When studying science at school at GCSE and A-Level, I had to carry a heavy textbook for each. I would imagine science students at university have several to carry around.

English Literature students such as me also had the option of buying books cheaper in second hand bookshops. Although science textbooks can be bought cheaply at a selection of bookshops and on Amazon.co.uk, the likelehood of a cheap science textbook is less than a cheap novel.

However, I wonder if Kindles will be adopted on a significant basis. Many students may not be able to afford to pay for the Kindle in one go, and universities are unlikely to have enough money to buy Kindles for students.

There is also the issue of students worried about being mugged for their Kindle. Some universites in England are not near the safest of areas, and people know that students may have expensive gadgets brought from home.