THE UNQUIET LIBRARIAN response

In looking at the mLearning topic, I chose to read first the article written by the unquiet librarian. In her blog article she discusses her decision to cease purchase of Amazon Kindles for use in her school library because of their new End User License agreement.

 She recounts that Amazon now requires a separate email for each device and for management of ebook accounts which must be 1:1 for K12 schools. This new policy enforces 1:1 ratio in all K12 and school libraries with only an offer to purchase a subscription to Overdrive in order to handle the back end management.

The unquiet librarian called her Amazon Kindle education representative to discuss the new licensing agreement and the limitations it places upon schools. Her representative tried to be helpful, but restated the fact that they were working on more back end management tools, however, those tools would not be available for some time. She ended that conversation with the feeling that Amazon did not value the needs of educators in the K12 setting and was not being responsive to her expressions of that frustration.

Therefore, she states that she will still continue to utilize the ten Kindles that her library possesses, but for the next year she has chosen to purchase Barnes & Noble's nook simple touch instead.

I felt this blog was very helpful and interesting from an educator's point of view. The main focus of integrating these mLearning technologies is to encourage student learning and make the tools available to the students. Therefore, the unquiet librarian had some very important points in the impracticalities of Amazon Kindle's new licensing agreement terms that required the differing email addresses for each Kindle and each ebook account. I agree with her decision based upon the impracticalities because if the purpose of the technology is to make it accessible to every student than the licensing policy makes this task much more difficult. On top of that, the fact that Amazon is not providing any kind of back end management aid without a purchase of a subscription to Overdrive seems incredibly unrealistic to implement the Kindle technology into the K12 school system.

Overall, I think the unquiet librarian does not seek to discredit or discourage educators from utilizing Amazon Kindles as a mLearning device, but I do think she offers a unique perspective on the features and requirements of the particular use in the K12 school systems. I hope that Amazon has taken some of her feedback and worked to respond to the educator consumers' needs when purchasing their Kindles for the purpose of mLearning in the schools.