My Kindle summer PD suggestion

I read a lot about professional development. What is wrong with the way it is done? Why educators don’t find it to be of much personal value. Etc.

Here is an idea that came to me based on the opportunity for educator personalization, cost-effectiveness, and depth of information. This plan would not cover all areas of need, but I believe it would be beneficial in reaction to many of the complaints I have heard. To be honest, I think I read about some school somewhere doing something like this. I am afraid at the time I did not pay much attention and failed to identify the source. Most of the ideas here are my own.

I propose that administrators offer educators funding to read Kindle books this summer. The number I have in mind would be 10, but 5 would also be beneficial. Based on my own heavy use of Kindle books, I estimate the cost would be $120 to $150 per educator. As a comparison, I estimate a trip to the ISTE conference in Chicago this summer would cost me $2000 0r so and I doubt I would get as much out of the conference as reading 10 appropriate books.

I would match the funding for Kindle books with the expectation that each educator author multiple tweets related to each book read. These tweets might be tagged with a school identifier (#myschool). This would offer some limited information to other educators who might find a useful book to add to their own request list. I suppose the tweets would also verify that the reader had spent time with the purchased books. The Kindle app offers a nice feature that allows the tweeting of a short segment of text underlined from the book and whatever additional personal comment can be included in the tweet. Clicking on the link in the tweet produces an image, the underlined segment, and a link to the Amazon store allowing access to the book. (see below).

I suppose if you really want to go cheap, you could lend a completed Kindle book to a colleague.

The more I think about this idea the more I think it would offer an opportunity for ebook publishers (ibooks, kindle books). Perhaps there could be some bulk plan made available to schools willing to meet a certain level of use – say 25, 5 book packages at $40 each. I have no idea such an idea might reach the ear of an Amazon or Apple executive.