We all remember the days when our mom's and dad's would send us off to school with a backpack full of books for the busy school day ahead, but that could all change very soon. Apple has recently announced that interactive iTextBooks are available for download on iPads.
Digital books are slowly gaining popularity in the academic world mainly because many of them are increasingly interactive. The student can watch videos that relate to they're reading, take notes on the iPad, highlight material and engage in interactive chats that help students better understand the material. Companies that provide these digital books also add a huge social media piece to it, where teachers can communicate with their students. Students can communicate with other students, and the user can choose who they want to follow like a twitter account where you can pick which students you want to follow and follow their notes. But as learning is the ultimate purpose, the question still remains: Will kids really learn more and better on tablets than existing media?
It’s not that we shouldn’t use computers in classrooms. Technology is a movement that is ever progressing, but it’s not only the technology that is important, it’s everything else around it. If you have a place with bad teachers and poor instruction, it’s a great way for both teachers and students to waste time. Between the two, having good teachers is much more important than having digital media. The transition from regular textbooks to digital textbooks on tablets may be inevitable, but research has consistently shown that good teaching skills and teaching ability effectively conducted to students can overcome socioeconomic background. Children need guidance and feedback. They’re not going to get that from electronic books alone. So until experiments and studies determine how tablets best enable learning, I don't think schools don’t need to rush.
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