Long before the internet revolution, computer manufacturers and teachers alike angled for ways to take advantage of computers in the classroom. Beginning in the early 1980’s—the dawn of affordable consumer-end personal computers—software designers sought to harness digital technology to present students with a stimulating, interactive approach to learning.
Now, however, high-speed, highly portable electronic devices present far more radical promise than a few hours of Oregon Trail in the computer lab. It’s now possible for handheld tablets to supplant traditional paper materials both in the classroom and at home, but is such a massive transition a good idea? Here are the major talking points in the tablet vs. textbook conversation:
Material realities
Not surprisingly, the same issues that have set the publishing world on its head are at stake in the domain of print vs. digital: the physicality of books has huge ramifications. At the front and center of the debate are environmental issues, of course, but the nature of traditional classroom education makes this an even more runaway problem. Why?
First of all, educational materials, by definition, have a built-in expiration date. Even among relatively static subjects—algebra, let’s say—textbooks tend to be revised annually, making older editions obsolete. Unlike a used novel, a textbook is not likely to have a second life for this very reason. Handouts and other generated supplements only make matters worse.
On the other hand, there are less obvious environmental drawbacks to using tablets. While they may eschew demands to our world’s forests, according to The New York Times, a tablet or other e-reader may be guilty of being 70-times as deleterious to the planet as a single textbook, due to both the extraction of minerals and energy expended in production.
The tangible quality of textbooks brings up more concerns than just the environment, however. Every textbook tends to be a bulky, unwieldy tome, and a busy student’s schedule usually requires that he or she carry more than one at a time. The burden is more than just annoying; it’s actually a health hazard. Especially in younger people whose bones have yet to mature, carrying from 10 to 30% of one’s body weight, as is common among students, can lead to scoliosis and chronic lower back pain. Tablets, on the other hand, can pack in more material than students are likely to read in their lifetimes.
Fiscal factors
There’s no contest in the debate over the space-conserving potential of using tablets in lieu of print materials, but the controversy over whether they will save money is just getting started. On the one hand, a study by the FCC suggests that once the average price of tablets drops to $150, we’ll save over $3 billion per year.
However, that’s only budgeting for the raw materials alone; such a projection does not account for the administrative retrofitting, training, and infrastructural updates that will enter the picture.
Even if down the road the collective tablet-based educational budget should shrink below the current paper-based one, we should still expect an initially egregious start-up investment, such critics are saying. Furthermore, there are regional and class considerations. It may take time for already-strapped school districts to afford the initial bid, while low-income students may not have the internet capabilities at home for tablet-based homework.
Effectiveness
Above all of these questions, the bottom line should be whether or not our children will actually learn through tablets. Current studies give a fairly clear answer of yes and no. On the one hand, students prepped with tablets are able to outperform on standardized tests. Perhaps, because of today’s Information Age children develop alongside computers already, they also absorb more information more quickly.
The downside is that tablet-based students are more likely not to retain that information for long. This may be because school districts already using tablets may endorse the kind of quantitatively-driven policies that result in “cram-and-forget,” test-centric studying. People who use print text, on the other hand, understand more and retain knowledge more permanently.
As one may surmise, some of the statistics above may result not from any intrinsic qualities of the two competing media, but from cultural norms that have formed around them. Students may equate computers with endless leap-frogging of hyperlinks, for example, creating a built-in attention deficit in the learning process. Additionally, there are practical concerns for which tablets still have no answer: delicate, glitch-prone technology can’t compete with the ruggedly low-tech hard copy, and teachers can surely expect to hear choruses of “the dog ate my charger.”
Nevertheless, even if the final result is a complementary relationship between the two, it’s unlikely that tablets will disappear from our schools.
Now, however, high-speed, highly portable electronic devices present far more radical promise than a few hours of Oregon Trail in the computer lab. It’s now possible for handheld tablets to supplant traditional paper materials both in the classroom and at home, but is such a massive transition a good idea? Here are the major talking points in the tablet vs. textbook conversation:
Material realities
Not surprisingly, the same issues that have set the publishing world on its head are at stake in the domain of print vs. digital: the physicality of books has huge ramifications. At the front and center of the debate are environmental issues, of course, but the nature of traditional classroom education makes this an even more runaway problem. Why?
First of all, educational materials, by definition, have a built-in expiration date. Even among relatively static subjects—algebra, let’s say—textbooks tend to be revised annually, making older editions obsolete. Unlike a used novel, a textbook is not likely to have a second life for this very reason. Handouts and other generated supplements only make matters worse.
On the other hand, there are less obvious environmental drawbacks to using tablets. While they may eschew demands to our world’s forests, according to The New York Times, a tablet or other e-reader may be guilty of being 70-times as deleterious to the planet as a single textbook, due to both the extraction of minerals and energy expended in production.
The tangible quality of textbooks brings up more concerns than just the environment, however. Every textbook tends to be a bulky, unwieldy tome, and a busy student’s schedule usually requires that he or she carry more than one at a time. The burden is more than just annoying; it’s actually a health hazard. Especially in younger people whose bones have yet to mature, carrying from 10 to 30% of one’s body weight, as is common among students, can lead to scoliosis and chronic lower back pain. Tablets, on the other hand, can pack in more material than students are likely to read in their lifetimes.
Fiscal factors
There’s no contest in the debate over the space-conserving potential of using tablets in lieu of print materials, but the controversy over whether they will save money is just getting started. On the one hand, a study by the FCC suggests that once the average price of tablets drops to $150, we’ll save over $3 billion per year.
However, that’s only budgeting for the raw materials alone; such a projection does not account for the administrative retrofitting, training, and infrastructural updates that will enter the picture.
Even if down the road the collective tablet-based educational budget should shrink below the current paper-based one, we should still expect an initially egregious start-up investment, such critics are saying. Furthermore, there are regional and class considerations. It may take time for already-strapped school districts to afford the initial bid, while low-income students may not have the internet capabilities at home for tablet-based homework.
Effectiveness
Above all of these questions, the bottom line should be whether or not our children will actually learn through tablets. Current studies give a fairly clear answer of yes and no. On the one hand, students prepped with tablets are able to outperform on standardized tests. Perhaps, because of today’s Information Age children develop alongside computers already, they also absorb more information more quickly.
The downside is that tablet-based students are more likely not to retain that information for long. This may be because school districts already using tablets may endorse the kind of quantitatively-driven policies that result in “cram-and-forget,” test-centric studying. People who use print text, on the other hand, understand more and retain knowledge more permanently.
As one may surmise, some of the statistics above may result not from any intrinsic qualities of the two competing media, but from cultural norms that have formed around them. Students may equate computers with endless leap-frogging of hyperlinks, for example, creating a built-in attention deficit in the learning process. Additionally, there are practical concerns for which tablets still have no answer: delicate, glitch-prone technology can’t compete with the ruggedly low-tech hard copy, and teachers can surely expect to hear choruses of “the dog ate my charger.”
Nevertheless, even if the final result is a complementary relationship between the two, it’s unlikely that tablets will disappear from our schools.
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