A huge wave is forming offshore. It is likely to sweep through several developing countries before it reaches the developed world. In its wake it will permanently transform remote villages and towns. In its aftermath, entire families will be uprooted and placed out of illiteracy. What is this wave? It’s a wave of change in the way we educate. It’s about electronic books becoming a force to reckon with, going where paper book hasn’t.

An average college textbook in the USA costs about $80. That is more than the monthly income of a family in the developing world.

Developing countries realize that education leads to economic development and they need that knowledge made available at a low cost. They need libraries but they barely have enough funding to build a house or school, let alone a library. We are talking about $99 libraries in students’ backpacks. An interactive library, one which allows the teacher to communicate with the students both in the traditional class room as well as at home and even on the school bus.

In this dynamic teaching environment, the teacher can assign homework, and the system could inform the teacher that most students had trouble with math problem #6, so the teacher can focus on that particular problem the next day in class. Homework and tests can be graded instantly and students can collaborate not only with their teacher but also with other students. Student can borrow books from the library in their school right from their home or classroom and they can also borrow or access material in another country with the touch of a few buttons. The Boston public library is now open in Bangalore, Budapest, Beijing and Baghdad.

This truly interactive learning environment will not be realized today. While the hardware to make this happen exists, the software, content and access to content is not completely developed yet. But this train has already left the station. Worldreader has been working over the past few years to provide eReaders to children in developing countries, and many US schools are already integrating eReaders into classrooms. Amazon recently launched a new resource for teachers, Whispercast, giving tools and tips to adminstrators trying to integrate eReaders into classrooms.

We see a huge opportunity for low power, dedicated reading devices, with robust content solutions for educators. What are your thoughts? Do you know of a school using eReaders in the classroom?