To ask "Is the
Kindle killing 3rd World Christian education?" is a powerful, emotion invoking question. It stirs up all kinds of emotions and defensive answers. After all we love out technology (not that I have a
Kindle)! How can a
Kindle, a nook, or any sort of e-reader be killing the education of Christian in 3rd world situation?
The
Kindle is not the issue, but part of a fast growing problem. Let me explain. Last year electronic books out sold hard copy book for the first time ever. This happened sooner that most analyst or futurist predicted. While this is surprising and even exciting it does cause concern about the direction we are going to take in missions and Christian education in the future.
Part of the problem is since eBooks are cheaper to purchase and they can be delivered almost instantly. Both great things for the initial consumer but have an after effect on other believers. While seem ebooks do carry a portability to other electronic device, this is not the common practice and is limited typically to PDF files. Most of the time when you buy a book it is sent or uploaded to your device it us in a proprietary format or is locked into your customer id. This means that your book is only good on your
Kindle account and not your
Kindle. It also means that you can not resale your books if you did not like it or have finished reading it. Many of the files since they are in a propitiate format with not transfer form one program or device to another. This means that you may own the book on your kindle, but you can't us it in your
Logos 4. Or if you have it on the Nook, you can't read it on you cell phone. It would seem that as the consumer you would have leeway to use you book the way you want to, but due to the easy of transferring files and inappropriately distributing them, this has caused laws and companies to create them in such away that you can only use their product and build in customer loyalty in the from of slavery if you want to keep and use the books you paid for.
What this mean for new believers in the Ukraine, pastor in Uganda and even the economically destitute in America is there is not the excess that there used to be to go around. No longer can to send your books to Africa because they are locked into your Kindle via your Amazon account. This means in the future there will be less to shared. Some would say that there is more than ever available on the internet. I would remind you that the same parts of the world that cannot afford
Iphones and
Ipads also cannot afford the internet, live in places where the infrastructure is not available for such and are in place where limited to no cell service. We forget in our overly blessed and abundant lives that not everyone lives with such pleasures. Many of the place that our books end up are in the poorest countries in the world. Even if we were to give up a $139 or $189 Kindle a mission pastor could not use your old book as this either violates your account agreement or it would have to be transferred over to new account minus your books.
While people are still buying new books and you can still get used ones on
Ebay and
Amazon the way of the future is digital copies. Many colleges give out
ipods with books, lecture and syllabuses on them, high schools are handing out
laptops with electronic textbooks and elementarys are experimenting with
iPads. These are great technologies to apply to education. Unfortunately this means the leftovers, overstocks,and castoffs will not be available to be sent and shared with less fortunate believers.
In the future these problems may be eliminated by law and technology changes, but it is not likely. The answer to what we will do to correct that is not a question that we can answer and we may need to be looking to answer new questions and offer new solutions. Can we make digital technology available to places with limited electricity or internet? Will Kindles work for the long term in the harsh open dessert or areas that have long, terrible rainy seasons. Will believer realize this and take their savings from their iBook or Amazon purchase and apply that to sending book to new and unreached areas to Bible Colleges, pastor training and the edification of believers. The future problem should only lead us to rely more on God for wisdom and seek His will as to how to equip His people. Many more minds need to work on this and hearts need to pray about this. The problem on the horizon may actually offer more greater opportunities for outreach and Kingdom work. Until this is all worked out I am going to buy book I can hold in my hand as often as I can in hope of sharing them in the future with others. I want my Library (as small as it is) to be a blessing to others.
