Susan Ohanian: Schools Matter: Amazon About to Launch New Enterprise in the Education Industrial Complex

Schools Matter: Amazon About to Launch New Enterprise in the Education Industrial Complex:

Amazon About to Launch New Enterprise in the Education Industrial Complex

In Amazon Unveils Online Education Service for Teachers Natasha Singer, a business reporter for the New York Timescovering education technology, describes Amazon's new enterprise, Amazon Inspire. In late August or early September, Amazon plans to  "introduce an online marketplace with tens of thousands of free lesson plans, worksheets and other instructional materials for teachers."

           Called Amazon Inspire, the education site has features that may seem familiar to frequent Amazon shoppers.
           Search bar at the top of the page? Check. User reviews? Check. Star ratings for each product? Check.

Singer notes that the educational materials market is where the money is. Analysts predict that, over time, it will  be much more valuable than the school computer market.  The New York City Department of Education is already paying Amazon $30 million to provide e-books to its 1.1 million students. But at least with e-books produced by major publishers, someone has vetted the manuscript. Amazon is  asking  "innovative teachers" to sign up right now for its mahem: "Be a pioneer and help build the future of open educational resources." You can fill out a form and Amazon will let you know if you qualify:

       Complete the form below and we’ll send you a special code if you qualify (we’ll also notify you when we are open
       to schools everywhere). Once your account is set up, we just ask for just 10 minutes of your time to upload and share
       5-10 of your own resources to Amazon Inspire. We also encourage you to rate and review the resources you discover
       there.

Amazon also invites 


      Are you a state, district, or school? An OER provider or a publisher with free content to share? We’ve collaborated
      with thousands of teachers and dozens of states, districts, and publishers during the private beta of Amazon Inspire.
      Now it's your turn. Help us to provide teachers everywhere with access to a large and diverse selection of free digitalSchools Matter: Amazon About to Launch New Enterprise in the Education Industrial Complex: