210 Kindle Fires arrive in largest donation ever

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon Just a few days ago, I announced that the Kindle Classroom Project had reached 300 Kindles. There was fanfare and jubilation. It was big.

Today is even bigger. Huge, in fact. Perhaps enormous.

A donor (who asked not to be named) has contributed 210 Kindle Fire HDX 7s to the program. There are now 511 Kindles in all.

The cash value of the donation is more than $35,000.

This is what the 210 Kindles look like inside my (new) car:

210 Kindles in Car

In each of those boxes, there are six Kindle Fire HDX 7s. If you open up one of the boxes, this is what you get inside.

6 Kindles in a Box

Keep opening and opening, and you get a beautiful reading tablet. (I’m checking out a sample of The Girl on The Train, which is getting good reviews.)

Kindle Fire HDX 7

I think, at this point, I’m pretty much speechless. Maybe I’ll have better words in a few days to explain more clearly what has just happened.

But here are a few first attempts:

1. Thank you. Thank you to the wonderful donor, and thank you to the good friend who connected the donor with me.

2. The Kindle Classroom Project is no longer a cute little program. I’m not sure what it is yet, but it’s at least a medium-sized program now.

3. Tablets are different from e-readers. Their additional features push me to think more broadly about next steps. One possibility is to look into audiobooks, particularly for students who have dyslexia or may benefit from professional narration (in addition to reading the text).

Now it’s time to get these Kindles in front of students as soon as possible. To make that happen, there is a ton of work to do. But I can’t wait! favicon

, , , ,

6 Comments

  1. This is HUGE news! SO exciting! When I think about how much you’ve done before this, making such a difference in students’ lives with 300 Kindles, and now you’ve got 210 new, fancy Kindles, I get a big verklempt! THAT’S A LOT OF KIDS YOU ARE HELPING!
    I’m very excited about all the possibilities. And I can’t wait to read about what happens with this new generation of Kindle tablets!
    (And I like your new car, by the way.)

    Reply

  2. WOW! That is truly amazing. 210 kindles!? And a NEW CAR? (ok – I know thats not right) Thank you anonymous donor person – you are wonderful. Mark, like MG, I am truly amazed at what you’ve done – thank you for helping Bay Area kids to read. You do good work.

    Reply

  3. Thank you anonymous donor! This is so exciting. I can’t wait to find out how Mark and his team use these Kindles. Which young people will be selected? A new school or an existing school? This is amazing. Thank you thank you thank you!

    Reply

  5. Thanks for the kind words! It looks like these new Kindles will go to three teachers at a high school in Oakland. I’m pretty impressed with what OUSD is doing to encourage independent reading — and now, Kindles are coming!

    Reply

    1. I’d love to hear more about how bringing the Kindles to the Oakland schools. How is it decided which students will get Kindles? What are they told to do or what sort of expectations (if any) are asked of them? Is it going to be like Oprah where Mark will stand in front of the school assembly and yell – “You get a Kindle! You get a kindle! You get a Kindle! Everybody gets a Kiiiiiiiindle!”
      Finally, might Isertope have a section for students to offer reviews of the books they’ve read as part of the Kindle classroom project? Reviews that other students can access when they get Kindles?

What do you think?