E-books and mobile learning

Sometimes it’s difficult to write posts about learning from e-book readers or mobile devices because there are so many different devices, formats, and applications out there to use. What I find useful might not be what you find useful, and in many cases, may not be available to you on the gadgets you prefer. I also want to steer away from promoting any one application or service.

In spite of all of this, I wanted to talk about how my e-reader (a Kindle 3 wifi version, if anyone’s interested) has really helped me with making my learning more portable (along with my MP3 player, of course). Initially, I didn’t think I would use it that much, since I like to scribble notes all over the place, but there are definitely some advantages to the electronic format.

I can send my language texts to the device and make notes on them if I want to. I can carry a whole library of books with me without having to choose before I leave the house, and without having to worry that I’m straining my back to carry it all. I can change the font size to make things more readable (especially handy when reading Chinese!). As long as I am not distracted by all of the other books I want to read, my e-reader is a great way to revise documents, books, pictures, and PDFs.

The only thing I’m really waiting for is a way to install dictionaries besides the native English ones.

What’s your favourite way to revise on the run?