There's a push in classrooms to try to make traditional books obsolete by replacing them with the electronic alternatives, and now, a recent Amazon Whispercast update looks to make that process even easier.

“Printed textbooks continue to be a staple in schools, but advances in e-readers are edging the eventual shift to devices closer to reality,” according to D Frank Smith of EdTechMagazine.

“Amazon is extending its e-reader revolution by reaching out to schools with an update to its free online tool Whispercast.”

Whispercast was designed to help institutions manage and distribute electronic content such as e-readers and apps granted the device being used supported the Kindle app.

“Nationwide, Whispercast is used in more than 130 of the 250 largest school districts and at 24 of the 30 largest universities, according to an Amazon press release,” reports Smith.

“Making the platform even more enticing to educators, Whispercast’s 3.0 update in April introduced a new migration option, Digital Transition Services. It’s part of Amazon’s pitch for making its service a launching point for educational content by easing schools through the transition to the digital marketplace.”

This service has been created to help students easily and successfully transition their existing digital content to new devices. Many companies in the market have been trying to make the transition of EdTech tools manageable for educators and students. With Whispercast’s update they have also made it a point to help students and educators through a crucial step of their technology.

“It’s not the first time this year that Amazon has made waves in the educational technology market,” says Smith.

“In January, the company announced it was adding an education genre within its Kindle Direct Publishing service, along with a beta for its Kindle Textbook Creator. The tool expands the existing digital textbook marketplace, currently dominated by publishers, by allowing authors to prepare and publish their own digital materials through Amazon.”

Whispercast is a way students can keep their content organized and may in turn teach students to be more organized in other aspects of their educational career. Making the transition easier is a practice that will be on the rise as classrooms become populated with the wide array of popular EdTech tools on the market.

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Article by Navindra Persaud, Education World Contributor.