Why Textbooks Are Better
- A broken tablet requires an experienced technician to fix, which can be costly and time-consuming. Textbooks can usually be repaired with basic supplies such as glue or tape.
- Print textbooks cannot crash, freeze, or get hacked. Unlike tablets, there is no chance of getting malware, spyware, or having personal information stolen from a print textbook.
- The average battery life of a tablet is 7.26 hours, shorter than the length of a school day. Tablets constantly need charging, increasing electricity demands on schools and the need for new electrical outlets.
- Using tablets is more expensive than using print textbooks. Implementing tablets in K-12 schools requires purchasing hardware (the tablet) and software (the textbooks), building new wi-fi infrastructure, and training teachers and administrators how to use the technology. Implementation costs for e-textbooks on iPad tablets are 552% higher than new print textbooks in an average high school. Lee Wilson, a prominent education marketing expert, estimated the annual cost per student per class with tablets to be $71.55 vs. $14.26 for print textbooks.
- Tablets have too many distractions for classroom use. Students may pay attention to apps, email, games, and websites instead of their teachers. 87% of K-12 teachers believe that "today’s digital technologies are creating an easily distracted generation with short attention spans." Four-fifths of students aged 8 - 18 multitask while using digital media.
- People who read print text comprehend more, remember more, and learn more than those who read digital text. The brain interprets printed and digital text in different ways, and people generally read digital text 20-30% slower than print. According to Pulitzer Prize winning technology writer Nicholas Carr, peer-reviewed studies show that reading hyper-linked text may increase the brain's "cognitive load," lowering the ability to process, store, and retain information, or "translate the new material into conceptual knowledge."
- Many students do not have sufficient home internet cinnect to use tablets. Students "need home broadband to access digital content and to complete Internet based homework," according to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, but about a third of Americans – 100 million people – do not have broadband internet at home. A 2010 FCC survey found that nearly 80% of K-12 schools reported broadband connections that were "inadequate to meet their current needs.
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