Should Schools Phase Out Textbooks in Favor of Tablets?

First topic message reminder :

I've been reading a few articles about this, and I have to come down on the tablet side, for a number of reasons. The biggest is that I think tablets have the ability to be effective educational tools in ways that print books will never achieve -- integrating text, animation, audio and game-like exercises into a single app.

Some people worry about the expense, and it's an issue, but that seems like it creates a huge market for a rugged, child-friendly tablet that can be used for, say, up to 10 years. Or even help in the push for modular mobile devices that can be continuously repaired rather than replaced. Imagine the difference between science instructional materials on a 10-year-old tablet that can be updated on the fly vs. a 10-year-old science textbook. When Pluto was demoted, how many millions of textbooks became instantly wrong? Whereas on a tablet, that information could be updated with a few keystrokes. Educational apps can also be continuously updated with free-for-educational-purposes material from a variety of sources, like YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/user/teachers

I think using the tablet itself would be educational, getting kids ready for a world in which they'll be expected to be able to use mobile devices on the job. I use my smartphone for a work-related task nearly every single day (including weekends).

There are other issues, such as heavy backpacks full of textbooks being unhealthy for kids to lug around, where a tablet could weigh under a kilogram and 3,500 e-books weighs the same as a single molecule of DNA (a tidbit I picked up in my readings on the topic).

Of course, some of the cons include the fact that not all students have Wi-Fi access at home, the fact that tablets are popular targets for theft, the potential for tablets to be abused ... But I think the same economic factors that are driving down the price of tablets themselves could help on things like making sure the tablets have a 3G connection so there's no need for Wi-Fi, etc.

What do you think?

Ben_Reilly wrote:

mentor wrote:And just WHAT are you going to do when the technology fails

when some nation or other perfects a purely EMP bomb?

or we get hit with a nice juicy solar flare

and all the precious tech goes up in smoke

Well, I'd think that schools transitioning to a higher-tech approach to education would still hang onto their textbooks in the case of something like that happening.

If it happened years later, there's still print-on-demand technology at many bookstores and libraries. It might be tough to adjust at first but if we had to go back to low-tech education, we could.

erm...print on demand would not "print on demand" in that scenario.

I think you are lacking a few points on the vulnerability of the tech you so deeply depend on

I have little actual NEED for the internet ....or computers...if shove came to push.

I have sufficient knowlege in my head alone to survive in almost any survivable environment, and although cumbersome and space greedy I have a considerable number of text books on many subjects, and whilst some details of some subjects have changed...the CORE rarely does.

heavenlyfatheragain wrote:

veya_victaous wrote:Cause maybe England is that Shit house, I don't know You guys seem to be crap at everything.
How the fuck did you ever have an empire????  


Anyway Handwriting has just officially became Obsolete.

Victor would appreciate this borrows a lot of components from a CNC router

what racist, bigot you are..

Tommy has done his best to prove to me that the UK is dumber than ever and as everyone else is smarter than ever what else am i meant to think

mentor wrote:And just WHAT are you going to do when the technology fails

when some nation or other perfects a purely EMP bomb?

or we get hit with a nice juicy solar flare

and all the precious tech goes up in smoke

Build it first

Plus Get off this rock, what are your text books and memorized tables and history dates gonna do if an Asteroid hits

Forward always forward
Your complains were the same when writing was invented