Clearwater High School "Kindle" Project

Here’s one way to lighten a stu­dent’s backpack: Say goodbye to text­books.

Clearwater High School next year will replace traditional textbooks with e-readers. The gadgets will be fully loaded with all the textbooks students need, minus all the paper.

For rising junior Bennie Niles, 17, it could mean accessing English, math and physics texts via a hand-held de­vice more on par with the technology he and his peers use every day.

“It gives you the ability to be more fluent,” Niles said as he held a Kindle reader. “It helps you have a better un­derstanding and comprehension of the text.”

Principal Keith Mastorides said he was inspired to make the switch earlier this school year after campus sur veys revealed a desire to integrate more technolog y with classroom in­struction.

“When you think about students today, three-quarters of their day is spent on some kind of electronic de­vice,” said Mastorides. “We’re just looking at textbooks a little differ­ently.”

Though the school hasn’t settled on a vendor, school officials are nego­tiating with Amazon Kindle to tr y to equip all 2,100 students with the 10­ounce devices this fall.

Kathy Biddle, a self-described “di­nosaur” who has been teaching more than 31 years, said she’s excited about how it might enhance her world his­tor y and sociolog y classes.

“I think it’s the way kids are think­ing today,” Biddle said.

John Just, assistant superinten­dent for the district’s management information systems, said that when the district contacted Kindle at M as­torides’ request, they were told no other high school had embarked on such an effort.

Kindles are listed on Amazon.com for $259 a piece, not counting the cost of purchasing the electronic texts. That’s typically far less than hard copy.

At first blush, the expense appears a savings over traditional textbooks. One book can cost $70 to $90. A typi­cal high school student would have about seven.

But Just said it’s too soon to esti­mate cost savings .

He said the school hopes to strike a deal to pay less per Kindle while bun­dling in the price of the texts, techni­cal support, teacher training and in­surance.

Hard copy textbooks would still be on hand in every class for anyone who isn’ t ready to go digital.