Schools using tablets instead of books

[stoppoppingtheP]

I was interested in your opinion of whether you think that schools should upgrade to tablets instead of books, and which option is better for the child.

Take into consideration dexterity, vision problems, damage of the tablet and its expense, the child's creativity.

I, for one, am dead against introducing tablets instead of books.

[montrealcl]

I think school should stick to the good old books, tablets are just too much

[g4n4ch3]

On first view tablets can be a very good learning tool and children naturally seem to use it to learn (sometimes but definitely more than they use books!) but I'm hesitant due to a couple of things:

Research will need to be done to find out the impact of using screens so much at such a young age. Bearing in mind chances are when the children gets home they will be sitting in front of the screen for a long time (TV or computers).

It will make distracted kids even more distracted so not sure if teachers can really control them.

So thats my view anyway

[Fran]

I'm sure similar discussions took place when the pen was replaced by the biro ... and probably when the quil was replaced by the pen.
Reminds me of my mother telling me about elderly neighbours of hers who were convinced electric light would cause blindness!

[JMTuckerman]

I was interested in your opinion of whether you think that schools should upgrade to tablets instead of books, and which option is better for the child.

Take into consideration dexterity, vision problems, damage of the tablet and its expense, the child's creativity.

I, for one, am dead against introducing tablets instead of books.

I think it depends on the age group really. Denying technology in the classroom only sets us back. It's true, it's expensive, but one the resources on a tablet and the hyperconnectivity it will create in the classroom is worth it.

I also don't think the child's creativity will be disrupted. If anything it will be enhanced and brought into a new medium.

[RussetDivinity]

There are pros and cons to both. On the one hand, it's much cheaper to produce books, and if you get a book a little wet, it's still readable. Books are also single-use, so you know the kid's only using it for that one thing and not distracting herself. Although, if she is distracting herself, it could be by writing marginalia (certainly a good thing, especially if it's clever marginalia that interacts with the texts) or by doodling (less useful, but still creative, and so not necessarily a bad thing). There's also something friendly about a book, especially a book that's been used and loved.

However, tablets are multi-use. You can have multiple books on a tablet, which makes them easier to carry, and I think we all have painful memories of lugging textbooks around. Granted, the worst are in high school and the original poster may have been referring to elementary school kids, but there are rather hefty textbooks starting as early as 5th grade. In addition, tablets can also have dictionaries on them so that kids don't have to run to another heavy book to look up an unfamiliar word. Kids also ought to know how to interact with technology, especially technology that's being used in the real (read: non-school) world.

In short? I think that tablets should be accessible for kids, but there should be at least a few books to choose from, if only as a sort of elective option rather than required.

[tangowithParis]

I'm sure similar discussions took place when the pen was replaced by the biro ... and probably when the quil was replaced by the pen.
Reminds me of my mother telling me about elderly neighbours of hers who were convinced electric light would cause blindness!

[AslansCompass]

One school in our area has made the switch, but I'm not sure it's the best decision. As Russet says, books are sole-purpose, so teachers can tell what the students are working on, but that can be a good or bad thing. I think it would be more appropriate in high school or middle school, after students have a grounding in traditional work.

[athieling]

My son's school uses MacBooks instead of books. The biggest advantage is that he no longer has to lug a bunch of books around all day. However, I have noticed an inclination by the kids to download a bunch of games (even though it is against the school's computer use policy). The real problem that we have had is that his computer hard drive crashed and the school didn't have any replacement computers available, so we ended up having to go through a whole process of getting my Surface approved by the school. It took a couple of days, during which time he had no books of any kind available while at school. I can also see this being an issue for families that cannot or will not purchase laptops/tablets (assuming, of course, that our school district is not the only one without any extra computers available)

[sherlock_holmes]

There are a couple sides to this argument, and all of them are well-founded. Technology has a future in the classroom, and no one can deny that. Research can be done with less effort. For example, many libraries across the country have offered an online option: if you have a kindle or a computer or iPhone with a kindle application, downloads are available for a large selection of the library's books. The argument for technology says it conserves effort. However, you must also consider the downside to this. Computers crash, and when you run out of battery and forget to bring a charger along, it's not exactly a great experience. Besides the fact that technology is fragile and can be broken by the sheer force of gravity on pavement. I'm fourteen, and the middleschool I attended last year downloaded an online science book for the students. When it worked, it was great: the weight of the book was gone, and all of the homework was online, so unless you forget your computer at school or at home, you're not going to be able to say to your teacher, "My dog ate my homework." Unless of course your dog is particularly destructive and has a fetish for touchscreens and keyboards. Delicious. When the server didn't connect, you were cut off from your homework. Or, in some cases, you would save the progress you had done only to log back on and find that the computer actually DIDN'T save your homework. It was frustrating for the teachers, too, because it took a longer amount of time to grade than ordinary hard-copy homework and of course the problems with technology.
There's always something to be said for books. Their weight is counterbalanced by their reliability. They cannot shut down. They contain research, but one might have to look a bit farther than logging on to a computer and typing the question directly.
Still, technology is creeping its way into various classrooms around the globe and there it will probably stay. People can't come this far only to turn back and say, "No, that's a bad idea; we made a mistake in this." If a school district takes a grant to buy computers, they're not going to sell the computers or throw them in the dumpsters. We are destined to be stuck in the age of technology... I only hope we can adapt.

[salberson 10]

As a teacher that used tablets for the first tme this year as supplement material, I am still on the fence. In a perfect situation I think the tablets present a great opportunity for differentiation. But as we all know there is no perfect situation. I had several broke and the students loved taking pictures with them...But I do believe this is the direction education is going.

[SidnayC]

I think you have to move with modern times. But for right now I don't think a school should waste their resources on providing every student with a tablet to read during reading time. I think reading in that way takes away from the reading experience... it certainly has for me.

[Hannaa_Campbell]

I, for one, hate reading off-of tablets, why not stick to good'ol fashioned books? They're cheaper than tablets, so I don't see the need for the change?

[2Friendly]

It's a lot harder for a teacher to monitor what a child is reading if they use a tablet or an e-reader. When kids are reading books, except for the few cheeky ones who can actually get away with slipping a smaller, more interesting book into the one they're supposed to be reading, the teacher knows exactly what the student is reading, as well as work out how fast they're reading etc... Tablets, on the other hand will have a whole library of books on it and its so much easier to be reading something different to what the teacher has set. Also, there's the problem of having to buy the same book over and over again for every tablet. This is no different to having to buy class texts, but if the idea is for each student to have a tablet of their own to read during independent reading time as well, a teacher can no longer get away with having 40 odd different books that kids can just share between themselves and take turns reading.

[Danielsduo]

I'm for tablets after a certain age. I swore I would never own a tablet and the only way to read is a good old fashion book. Right now I am on my third nook upgrade. The weight of a childs backpack can be cut down to next to nothing, if text books, reading assignments, and more were on a tablet. It would also cut way back on the cost of updating, and replacing reading material used in schools. I'm an avid reader..I can take my whole library with me where ever I go! Our kids could do he same with all their school books