Friday, May 22, 2009

Video of Case Western's Q&A with Amazon rep

The first part of this youtube video is of the Case Western Reserve University's announcement of the Kindle study and explanations of how they'll use the Kindle in their programs.  They'll be comparing relative effectiveness of learning via the traditional methods vs using e-books on the Kindle, will study useability and will videotape students to watch how they navigate... etc.

  There's a Q&A session on how this will work.   The Amazon rep talks about how the Kindle has a web browser that they call "experimental ... we're constantly working on it," that "it's an important thing to remember that it's free... no wireless charges...we cover all ...that..." Says you can use online resources without having to get up and go to a computer.

He also answers a question about the absence of color for textbooks which have charts and labels based on color.  He explains that while they've seen color displays in the lab they're "not happy with it" and it's not up to their "standard of readability" ... they've not seen a "color screen that you can read for a long time on."  Most color displays are backlit and it's like someone shining a light in your eyes, he says.  They'll "obviously keep investigating that," he added but it has to meet their standard. He thinks "there are creative solutions around some of the charts and labeling" in the short term until you have color."

The segment is 18 minutes.  The rest of the 32 minutes are about other programs.

No comments:

Post a Comment