If you click over to my Environmental Resources Forum, you will see I have a request out to anyone who can help me learn from first hand experience how open source text books are working. To date, I do not have any feedback. However, there is a huge potential savings in money, paper and back strain as well as hours tracking and handling materials if e-readers and open text books both become viable as teaching aids.

For now the e-readers battery life, color rendering and notation tracking are key limitations. Amazon has just finished a real world survey at several universities and this is a summary of what was learned:

Students pulled no punches telling Amazon what they thought of its $489 e-reader. The Kindle DX failed its first test. At the University of Virginia, as many as 80% of MBA students who participated in Amazon's pilot program said they would not recommend the Kindle DX as a classroom study aid (though more than 90 percent liked it for pleasure reading). At Princeton and Reed, students complained they couldn't scribble notes in the margins, easily highlight passages, or fully appreciate color charts and graphics.

At least Amazon is asking the questions and hopefully they are also listening.