Tablets are the New Texbook
Who would have ever thought technology would start to take over the classrooms. The new way of the future is having the teaching in the hands of the students.
It slowly has made its way into almost every grade. If not by starting in one grade then going from there or by giving it to all the grades right away. Technology has slowly made its way into all of our lives but is it really better to have it in school?Do tablets have better information than books, is it really worth the cost, and what are the benefits in the long run of using tablets? Tablets haven’t been in classrooms very long and we haven’t seen any outcomes for it yet because of how long they have been here. To see these outcomes you have to use them for the better and not just substitute them in for going to a computer lab. Tablets have made kids more mobile because their backpacks are lighter without carrying all of those books from USAtoday.
With having the tablets in the classroom it has change the classroom environment. Now that we have to use the tablets, teachers don’t have to schedule time in the lab to work on projects because we can do all of this in the classroom. When students go to the lab most of them aren’t very productive but once they stay in class and work on their tablets they are productive. Every student that has a tablet has their own digital library. All the books they read are up to date because after years the textbooks tend to be out of date.
The tablets are the way of the future because when kids start to graduate, they are going to have to be bilingual and technically savvy. The big question is if the tablets are worth the money? Tablets are expensive for schools and it is an investment. The second largest school district in the U.S. has spent about $30 million for 35,000 iPads. That isn’t even enough for the whole school, they just tried it in a couple of grades at first.
Eventually the school would like to equip all 640,000 students which is a lot of iPads according to USAtoday. Not all schools have to pay for it themselves, some schools can receive grants. Widhalm’s school received $266,000 grant to purchase iPad minis. A small group at the school has iPads and the school hopes that with giving the rest of the student’s iPads they will be more interactive and engaging from Neatoday. There are some complications with getting iPads.
They are easy to break if you don’t have the right cases. So you also have to buy sturdy cases for them. When or if one breaks they can be very time consuming to fix and that child might be without one unless you buy extra for them to use. There is also the Wifi issue you would have to deal with. Even though there are these complications there are benefits to having iPads. With having iPads or another kind of tablet, every student can be an active researcher.
The students can spend more time on trying to improve their work and it can be an easier way for students to help others refine their work according to thejournal. Fourth graders from Tallahassee, Florida, chronicled the life cycle of plant on their tablets. Preschoolers from Mesa, Arizona, were able to practice Spanish all on their tablets from USAtoday. Teachers can use this technology by assigning the student to watch lectures at home and do the work in class. By doing this the teachers can really help the students because when a student really needs help is in the homework. The students would really benefit from this because they can get all their questions answered in class.
Technology in the classrooms hasn’t been around that long but there will always be more improvements to come. Some improvements might be the kind of tablet school choose to use. According to tabletsforschools, which ever kind of tablet you get the battery should last the entire school day, tablets with toughened glass, and the price needs to be balanced against the tablet features. The iPads have been the top choice from both ends of the economic spectrum. However, it’s uncertain whether the iPad is the best device for the classroom according to thestlantic.
No matter what kind of tablet you might choose, tablets are taking over textbooks. By putting tablets in the classrooms, it would only benefit the student’s education and not slow it down.Having tablets in the classroom, the students have books that are up to date at the touch of their fingers, but even though they are expensive they have many benefits. We will learn more and more about the tablets and what we can do with them every year. Tablets in classrooms are the way of the future no matter how you get there.
