Evaluating The Use Of Tablets Over Textbooks In K-12 Schools

Tablets over Textbooks in K-12 Schools

Which would one prefer to carry on their back, one one-billionth of a gram or two tons? The average four-gigabyte tablet can hold 2,300 eBooks that only weigh one one-billionth of a gram. These books would weigh over two tons as printed textbooks. The implementation of tablets and eBooks instead of textbooks in K-12 schools would result in benefiting the future generations. This shift would result in developing more intellectual students, cause less damage to the health of the students and the environment, educate and prepare students on the technological world in which they live, and would be more cost efficient in the long run.

One of the greatest results that comes from the used of tablets in the

California’s Riverside United School District conducted an experiment on a large group of students preparing for a standardized mathematics test. Half of students were given a digital version on an Algebra 1 textbook with interactive features and the other half where given the printed version of the same book to prepare with. When the test results came out, the students who prepared with the digital learning materials scored 20% higher than those who used the printed textbooks (Tablets vs Textbooks, 2014). “We’ve gone far beyond the capabilities of an eBook to turn a one-way math lesson into an engaging, interactive, and supportive learning experience” says Bethlam Forsa, executive Vice President, global content and Product Development (Wright, 2012). In a rural Ethiopian village in, a non-profit organization donated tablets loaded with educations apps to the local school with no instructions. Within 2 weeks, the students were able to use all the apps correctly and significantly furthering their educational and technological knowledge. Evidently, technology-based learning is an extremely effective tool in developing more intellectual students (Tablets vs Textbooks,

Last year the book and newspaper industry harvested 125 million trees, while the eBooks industry harvested zero trees and prevented the harvesting of million of more trees. Unlike eBooks that can be downloaded in a few seconds, textbooks need to be transported to their destination. This requires the burning of fossil fuels and more harmful car emissions being released into the environment. Unlike eBooks that leave a small carbon footprint, “reports assert that textbooks have the highest per-unit carbon footprint in the publishing sector”(Hustsko, 2009). Tablets also allow teachers to conserve ink and paper by not having use paper handouts, quizzes, and homework because students could access them virtually from their tablets. Clearly, eBooks are a step in the right direction to a healthier environment (Tablets vs Textbooks,