I'm looking into getting an eBook reader after hefting one yesterday and realizing it's a zillion times less heavy than a stack o' packets. As a coach, I get LOTS of packets every year, and having a reader saves me time and space in shuffling through them all.

My question, to decathletes and coaches alike, is about your personal experiences with an ebook reader and the USAD packets and the DemiDec packets. How amenable are the USAD packets to reformatting? Is it better to read them in PDF format? How are they on a Kindle? How are they on a Nook?

I want an epaper reader, as well. No LCD for me, so please do limit the discussion to epaper readers. I'd also want it to be on the standard screen models, not the DX versions or anything like that.

I have 2 kids who have bought and used Kindles. They have liked them enough that I have requested 10 for the program (don't yet know if they have been approved). The Kindle has no problems downloading Demidec pdf's, and the kids say that you can highlight, annotate, adjust font size, and the 2 that are using them that they are sold on them. This is all second-hand information, as I've never used one. I think we are all on the cusp of using this technology to help our programs, and there is still a lot to learn. I know that Gear will probably weigh in here (hope so) because a number of his kids are using them.
I tried flash drives this year, but most of the kids preferred paper, and only if I gave it to them (= copies still through the roof).
Good luck with it. I heard that your kids have been meeting every day over the break?! Mine are everywhere except Dallas (hopefully with a packet).

That's good to hear on the Kindle. I think I'll pilot one and then we can have an opportunity to fundraise for team Kindles...

As a former decathlete, I don't think they will help in studying. I learned best with packets because they were interactive; underline, highlight, notes in the margin, etc. It's hard to be interactive with the text on a kindle.

As a future coach, hell yea.

Ok I have a lot of gadgets and both an IPad and Kindle. Both are solid reading devices only difference is Kindle is passive lighting so battery goes for longer. As for kindles being packets I'm also a bit skeptical. I wouldn't mind having it for traveling purposes because you can just read without messing up everything, but I think its good to have both. I love the Kindle but I feel its more of a leisure-reading resource then one that involves highlighting and such because the way the kindle is built it'll slow you down a lot if you need to highlight and mark things in it. Still its a good idea, but definitely test it first.

I primarily want one for me as a coach so I can read all my packets on the road without having to schlep a stack o' paper. If my decathletes can profit by them, so much the better.

So far, I haven't heard complaint on how Kindle handles the USAD/Demidec PDF files, so I think I'm ready to commit.

I'm attending a mini-grant writing workshop in January so that I can write a grant for my team to get Kindles. I think that will be good for my team and for me and save on a lot of printing costs. We'll see how it goes.

I didn't like the double-columning in the PDFs, so I did some fancy stuff in Adobe Professional to get them into a single-column format and then made them into MOBI files. They're not *perfectly perfect*, but they're very readable in Kindle without needing to mess with the way they show up in the PDF reader.

Also, Ibn Battuta FTW.

I have an iPad, and although I know that the Kindle is much easier to read on, I don't think an e-book reader is a sufficient substitute for guides. I agree with Andrew, I learn best through marking up my guides, and I find it annoying trying to highlight and underline mass amounts of information with an iPad. I have a tendency to underline almost everything, and it helps me learn, but obviously some students have different ways of learning the material than others. I know someone who wanted to make a wiki on the Great Depression, and that was something he wanted to do to help him learn. Perhaps an e-book reader would help for a person who learns purely through reading, and refuses to have uneven highlight marks. Otherwise, I don't see a use for it other than for traveling purposes.

That's brilliant!

It's definitely something for *me* to have. I'll have to see how my team members feel about it.