The theme of this week is Hardware; I will talk briefly about tablets here in my blog. Tablets become the most popular gadget in the last five years. For instance: iPad, Google Nexu 7, Samsung Galaxy Tablets, Acer Iconia, Amazon Kindle Fire etc. There are tons of brands you can choose from and each of them offers a unique characteristic: such as appearance, function, and connectivity. Their popularity among students is grown at a daily basis. As a cutting edge device, its integration into education will materialize in the foreseen future.
There are some controversy surrounding its
Pros and Cons when introduce tablets into education.
Pros:
Improve our education system and allow alternative
teaching method in a cutting edge way;
Create immersive learning environment;
Help students organize their school works;
Teach kids about technology;
Save money on traditional textbooks;
Cons:
Potential to be a distraction, especially
for some kids in attention disorder;
Connectivity, the Internet accessibility
could bring inappropriate information to students and such information will
propagate between classmates rapidly;
The cost is very expensive.
Some of public or private schools have the
advanced technical devices such as laptops, Mac, or even Tablets. “Charlottesville public schools were issued tablets midway
through this school year 2012.”
“Carmel
Catholic High School freshman Nicole Dowd gets a look at the new tablet she
will use in all of her classes next year with her mathematics teacher, John
Titterton. All Carmel students will receive a tablet next year and all classes
will incorporate this technology.” However, not all
of our schools have that accessibility to this new technology since there are
limitations in government funding.
The situation not only happens in K-12
education but also exist in college and universities. In order to truly
accommodate the trends of technology and catch up with the digital age, devices
are essentially not only for students but also for professors and administers
as well. Is this possible to accommodate
such devices college wide to each student and faculty? The answer is apparently
no for now.
However, for college students, BYOD is
going to be a trend in the future.
So, what can companies do to solve this
problem in education? How to win the competition in the market of tablets? Its attractive
appearance and fancy features? Those cannot help; the most important thing is
the price. One decade ago, computers and laptops were quiet luxury products,
but now, almost everyone owns one, simply because it becomes cheaper and
cheaper, yet with improved performance year by year. Hence, it can be concluded
that tablets will replace computers in the near future. “A new report reveals that most US
schools are testing tablet devices, with the aim of having more tablets per
students than computers by 2016.”
References:
Eric.S (Aug., 2012) Why innovative hardware is not enough. [Internet Article] Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/05/08/tablets-and-education-why-innovative-hardware-is-not-enough/
Megan E. D(Apr.,2012) Tablets in Charlottesville schools prove successful. [Internet Article] Retrieved from:
http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2012/apr/29/tablets-charlottesville-schools-prove-successful-ar-1878331/
Russell. L(Jun., 2012) Carmel High School to provide personal tablet computers to all students next year . [Internet Article] Retrieved from :http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120430/news/704309742/
Jason. A(Jun., 2012) Pros and Cons of iPads in the Classroom. [Internet article] Retrieved From:
Doug. D (Oct,. 2012)Schools will have more tablets than they do computers 2016. [Internet article] Retrieved from: http://tabtimes.com/news/education/2011/10/31/schools-will-have-more-tablets-they-do-computers-2016
