kindle vs book

I have started reading our book, 21st Century Skills: learning for life in our times. I purchased both of the books we need to read as ebooks on my kindle, keeping in mind that I would be traveling a lot during the course of our class and it made more sense for me to bring my kindle vs 2 books. However, I didn't realize there would be a learning curve with textbooks on my kindle. Up to this point, I have used my kindle for strictly pleasure reading, ususally when I travel. I really didn't take the time to learn about the features of my kindle and now find myself reading an academic text that I need to reflect on and respond to and am trying to figure out how to bookmark, add a note and highlight the text as I am reading it on my kindle. (and then retrieve and review my notes, and I don't have any idea where I even am in my book, since I don't have page numbers on my kindle, but rather "locations") One other mom in my cabin also has a kindle, but it really doesn't look like mine. (Not sure if it is newer or older than mine and we didn't really have any time yet to compare them) She said that she likes the fact that she can hightlight a word and search it on the internet. I didn't even know that my kindle had that function! (maybe it doesn't but I guess I'm going to be finding out!) So, now I am not only reading our textbook, I am also figuring out my kindle too. Maybe I should have let my kids use it prior to me and they could have taught me all the ins and outs of my device!!