Definitely I would go with tablet device rather than laptop. But I still feel tablet device and laptop both distract the stduents because most of the students gets hooked onto social networking sties. One thing I would love to add to the tablet device is "College lock feature", as soon as you enter the college network automatically social networking sites, non-educational websites gets blocked.
If the question is textbook vs. tablet, I'll go with textbooks. I agree with the previous post that tablets present way too many distractions. One can be studying when suddently you have an email or a new facebook post that pops up. I know my daughter's high school is not distributing text books and they are making them available on-line. I elected to purchase the textbooks so my daughter can have a hard copy. It is already difficult to monitor and restrict on-line presence, having on-line textbooks makes the process even more difficult for parents.
If the question is between tablets and notebooks, well I hate to show my age but, I would have to go with a notebook. I have an iPad, which I love, but I find it impossible to type anything lengthy using the touch screen. I prefer a real keyboard to type from, it is faster and more efficient.
First of all, I think using iPads for this study was slightly un-wise... the iPad is an entertainment device that just happens to be capable of serving as an e-reader. I'm sure many students enjoyed playing games and watching movies on their iPads.
Now e-readers, on the other hand, I think have a bright future in the classroom. Within 5-10 years, we'll get to the point where b&w e-readers are $25-$50, which makes buying them for elementary school students completely feasible.
Using e-readers instead of traditional textbooks has so many advantages: less weight to carry around, obviously, but also more easily customized content, much easier to update material (no more History teachers having to teach out of textbooks printed in the mid-80's), decreased cost of material, etc.
I find the paragraph about students having more difficulty with note taking a little odd... because it's not like students traditionally do much highlighting or note taking on traditional textbooks. You're not supposed to deface them, especially if you're a college student looking to re-sell them. I don't really see how using an e-reader makes taking notes any harder (although I may agree that it doesn't make note taking that much easier).
Anyhow, in the educational space, I think what will ultimately be successful are cheap, near-disposable, black & white e-readers. You really need to focus on a low price point, because a child losing a $400+ tablet would be a disaster, but a child accidently smashing his $25 e-reader during recess would be just a minor inconvenience.
DennisQ--those were benefits I hadn't thought of--the immediate availability of updated material. I'd tend to agree the e-reader is a better idea than the iPad at least in terms of functionality--if it's supposed to replace textbooks, then hold the movies and music, please. On the flip side, I can see the value of video or other types of media being included in the coursework.
Carrying around an e-reader is a huge plus--I was a lit major and my Riverside Shakespeare text weighed a good 5 pounds. But it's also one of the books I kept from my college days--at least the content won't go out of date.
The most debatable topic these days. Well on one one hand you just cannot stop technology to overpower the basic necessities and on other hand how much you love doing things in their purest form. Like my 2year daughter is almost addicted to you tube, she knows to shut down my laptop, select videos from playlist and demand what she wants to see. I can't imagine she wanting to see Black eyed peas song. The point I am making is today's generation wants and gets all sophistication at a much younger age so they very well would like to learn on iPAD.
In my personal view these electronic gadgets would defitely be a boon for post graduates or even graduates but for primary and seconday education I would love to have notebooks and text books. Primary and secondary education makes the basis of an individual educational career. If someone can guarantee that there wont be server hangups or slowdown, power outage or what if someone steals my ipad, in how much amount I can buy another one, I would think of giving that to my kid.
But being a technical person myself, i know its inevitable that ipad or any other electonic gadget do not replace textbooks and notebooks in future. All I can dream is kids have the ipad of the size of a notebook so its easy to read. The interface to write on ipad should be same as writing on a notebook. If that happen why not, who wants kids to carry heavy backpacks???
I recently read an article and saw a TV commercial as well that the new Hyundai Equus will come with an iPad, which will include the owner’s manual and allow customers to schedule service appointments with the device. I can see more and more luxury car manufacturers including a table device with the purchase of the vehicle. This is a good PR move as it also promotes less paper and more eco-friendly.
My question to the community: Is this a trend in which companies/universities will be including tablets as part of the purchase or in the case of universities, the curriculum? Also, what happens to the people who already have a tablet, could this become tablet overload? Can someone own too many tablets?
On the choice of tablets over textbooks, I would say each has their attributes. Personally, I think an e-reader would be a better choice than an Ipad or Android tablet.
The E-reader is more affordable, just as compact and easy to carry and multiple classes can be loaded. The competition is more of an entertainment tool and would be an alternative to a lap top over a text book. There are some people that have issues reading so much content on a screen and getting eye strain over it. Since many people tend to highlight important facts and phrases, this would be hard to do on a black and white e-reader with a fixed program not allowing editing.
I'm sure over the next decade text books are going to be replaced by some form of electronic device. Who knows, by that time technology could have a better replacement than any current options.
I have to admit I was somewhat skeptical about the e-reader trend, but then that was before I started to lift a middle-schoolers backpack. This text-nutty generation already spends most of their waking hours hunched over enough as it is. I'll have to scrounge around and see what the ergonomic studies indicate.
Recently, coming back from Far East I have experienced something similar; due to strong winter impacting shipment and any kind of distributions abroad, newpapers inside waiting rooms at the airports, were available by free tablets instead of traditional printed copies. In my opinion it was very useful, but speaking about education...why electronic would like to avoid pleasure for children to strip a traditional book maybe with pictures by hand inside (and without worries about power or sands from the sea?) What's more fascinating? A video or dated book?
I think that it is great idea and I would choose iPad over textbook. The information on the iPad may have scientific movies, links to touch and much more than any textbook could offer ever before. Besides information can be updated without throwing away paper (or even recycling it).
In a few high schools in California the iPad has been already implemented and it works well. I cannot wait to see innovated approach to learning material (I am not calling it textbook) placed on iPad or iPad like devices. This has a potential of revolutionizing learning process.
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Thailand Stages a Comeback Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Euro-Crisis: What It Means for High-Tech Firms Join EBN Editor in Chief Bolaji Ojo and Contributing Editor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday, July 12, at 10:00 a.m. EDT for a Live Chat on high-tech and Europe's economic difficulties.
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Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Peter Drucker famously said "Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window." Yet in the razor's-edge world of electronics—with a lean supply chain and just-in-time demands—the need to know the future is vital.
While no one really can accurately predict the future, we can take guidance from another Drucker saying which is the best way to predict the future is to create it.
You've heard the saying "the No. 1 supply chain risk is your people." That hasn't always been the case. But today's complex global supply chain requires a new type of multitalented employee. It's one who understands, finance, marketing, economics, is savvy with technology, graceful with relationships and can think analytically.
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Brian Fuller, editor-in-chief of EBN, will lead a 60-minute Avnet Velocity panel discussion that will ask and answer these and other questions swirling around today's supply-chain talent challenges.
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