You might have noticed that school budgets and spending are kept under a close eye by school officials and the community.  As schools continue to look to take advantage of technologies that add significant value, monetarily and academically, to learning experiences, portable reading devices and content are growing in popularity and availability.  Portable reading devices and the ever growing eBook stores (I'll address these in a subsequent post) are making appearances in school libraries, reading classrooms and in student's backpacks.  This is the start of a series of eBook posts that will frame some understanding about these devices for learning and teaching.  As we've been piloting Apple's iPad most recently, much of the series will be iPad specific, however, much of the information/lessons learned will apply to all eBook readers and content.  Among digital reading devices are several types of eBook readers, tablets and smartphones.  Here's a short list of devices (maker)  that are appearing in schools:

• iPad, iPod Touch & iPhone (Apple)
• Kindle (Amazon)
• Nook (Barnes & Noble)
• Reader (Sony)

Each device has it's distinct features and shortcomings.  The goal here is to highlight the features best suited for learning and teaching, however, where appropriate the shortcomings will be addressed for understanding and decision making.  With the start of this series, I wonder...

• What devices have you used? 
• What devices are your schools looking at?
• What questions do you have?  

* Cross-posted at Technology of Learning