Amazon Kindle - Use by visually impaired in school - Can it be managed????

[L3OUGH]

Hi all,

 

Need some help..! The head at one of my primary schools got a report back from County yesterday saying that one of the visually challenged students needs a 'device' that allows them to 'big up' the font when reading etc.

 

They recommended a Kindle. The head has now read this and got her head set on getting one. I have no experience of Kindles in school, never heard or know of anyone that's deployed Kindles in a school..

 

Has anyone here deployed any Kindles in the school environment or got any experience with them?? I'd like to centrally manage the Kindle(s) with an MDM or similar. After a quick Google Amazon have their own management called 'Whispercast' but only available in the US.

 

Also, how/what do you do in terms of buying books? Does your school have their own procurement card that's linked to an Amazon account??

 

Any help would be appreciated as I literally have NO experience with Kindles.

 

Ta

Liam

Edited March 4, 2015 by L3OUGH

[jumpinjamez]

Hello,

 

The idea of having class of e-readers has been around here for a while and seems a great idea from SLT and others however in reality I have yet to see a good solution for schools. As you mention Amazon are looking at this but only in the US at the moment.

 

At the moment Amazon kindles are linked by default to the account which brought them and each book purchased can only be put on 6 devices.

Also kindles have issues with wifi and proxy servers which we could not resolve with out wifi network.

 

The last attempt we had was sony e-readers which were terrible to work with.

 

James

[Joanne]

What about a tablet with the kindle app installed?

 

Then at least it can be managed with MDM?

[hardtailstar]

What about a tablet with the kindle app installed?

 

Then at least it can be managed with MDM?

 

Can be used for other things too for the student.

[L3OUGH]

Thanks for the responses guys! @jumpinjamez thanks for the heads up on the wi-fi problems, may have saved my skin here as the network is also a wireless one school wide!!!

 

I'm thinking a tablet with the Kindle app maybe a better route to go down. As @hardtailstar mentioned it can be used for a variety of different things too.

 

Next question... Which tablet