E-books go to college, but books still rule the campus, not Kindle

High school and college students are usually leagues ahead of their elders, technologically speaking. As they're dizzyingly texting and Tweeting and multitasking to their hearts' content, they're reading far fewer books than students of previous generations. No wonder some institutions are adopting drastic measures to stay on the cutting edge.

To that end, Blyth Academy in Toronto is claiming to be the first school to wholly replace textbooks with e-readers. Blyth contracted with Sony to provide its Touch Edition device to allof its students. The school has a kindred spirit in Cushing Academy, an elite Massachusetts prep school that this fall threw out 144 years of tradition and replaced its entire library collection with all-digital offerings, including e-books. "When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books," headmaster James Tracy told The Boston Globe in September.