TECH - Tablets in Education

Tablets are a great resource for teachers. They have so many options, available apps for teachers, and are completely versatile. On the surface, it seems logical to have a tablet that the children can bring back and forth with them, so they can have all their textbooks in one place. This eliminates the possibility of them forgetting the books at school and making them unable to do their homework, but also it removes the extra weight that they are having to carry in their book bag. When I was a student in school, we had to do scoliosis tests regularly because kids were hurting their backs so much because of the weight they were putting on their backs. Granted, having a tablet that goes back and forth with students is probably best suited for the older students, but kids at a younger age don't have as big of books as the older kids do, anyways.

But aside from what we can see being the obvious pros that can be assessed before even getting to know the device, there are so many options that are beneficial to using a tablet in the classroom that teachers can take advantage of. My personal pick for a tablet device would be the iPad, but there are some great options that are available on most tablets that are not just for ebooks. First off, with the tablet, the students have the ability to take notes using Google docs, or any typewriting software. Children these days type faster than they write, and if they are anything like me, they have the attention span of a fish and get bored of writing very quickly. But with typing, it pulls in more senses than staring at a blank piece of paper, and getting a sore wrist. Children live for technology so handing them something they are used to using will give them more of an incentive to actually take notes and focus on their notes.

Teachers can also distribute tests via the iPad or tablet, which will send an automatic grade to the teachers. The only problem here is the potential for cheating. Students know how to move through the internet faster than I could ever imagine being able to, so they know the ins and outs of how to get away with cheating. However, if a teacher is going into the situation knowing that they are at risk of having cheaters, then the cheating can be handled before it even becomes a problem. But there are so many different ways that a teacher can include students on different documents and presentations that will make the learning interactive; from showing notes on their page as they are talking about it to creating projects that they can work on together from their own tablet.

Tablets are becoming the "norm" in schools around the world. Most public school sin America have yet to adapt the 1:1 ratio for students and tablets, but a lot of private schools are already taking the step to make the tablets available to their student. The tablet in education is on the rise as more and more families start to see the possibilities of the tablet and as more homes own tablets and other devices. Also, according to an article found in my class' site, Apple has a configuration app that makes it easy to configure a large amount of iPads, iPods, or iPhones. This could make the preparing tablets for the classroom so much easier, and further push schools to have tablets in every classroom.