V1 Professor Rodriguez Strong English 1301.

65 December 6, 2012 The Digital Era As we move forward into the 21st century, modern technology has become a great enhancement to our everyday lives. The outcome of this new era has recently led schools to incorporate these new technologies to increase productivity and enrich the learning experience of their students. Consequently, it has sparked a new debate whether K-12 school districts should switch from print textbooks to digital textbooks on tablets. In my opinion this would be a great addition to how schools teach their students for the reason that print textbooks are heavy and cause injuries, while a tablet only weighs 1-2 pounds, on a tablet, e-textbooks can be updated instantly to get new editions or information, tablets help to improve student achievement on standardized tests, and tablets lower the amount of paper teachers have to print for handouts and assignments, helping to save the environment and money (ProCon) One of my worst memories of being a high school student was having to carry a backpack filled with heavy books for a long period of time. Books are both amazing and helpful as an educational tool, but they become less convenient after you have a backpack filled with three or more books. According to an article in healthfinder.org, during the 2011-12 school year, more than 13,700 kids aged 5 to 18 were treated in hospitals and doctors' offices for backpackrelated injuries (1). Books continue being the most concrete source of information, but that should not excuse the fact that students are at risk of having backpack-related injuries from carrying an excess amount of books. Pediatricians and chiropractors recommend that students should carry less than 15% of their body weight in a backpack, but the combined weight of just

V2 3 school subjects in books exceeds that percentage in nearly all grade levels K-12 (Stickel). Impressively, a tablet or an iPad weighs 1-2 pounds, and never increases in weight no matter how many books are stored into it, and it can store anywhere from 1-60 e-books. Making these great innovative tools available in classrooms can help students avoid the physical stress and possible injuries that result from carrying books in a backpack. Once a text book is released and distributed to schools, it is impossible for an author to update the information that is in the book. Books are filled with great information and wonderful content, but the content is outdated quickly. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that "too many students are using books that are 7-10 years old with outdated material." For subjects such as History, Biology, Computer Science, and other subjects which are constantly changing, it is difficult to keep the content up to date. In addition to tablets and iPads being light and significantly more portable than books, their capability to update their e-book content is incredible and can be extremely beneficial to students. Unlike textbooks, updating the information that is on these e-books is fast and easy. On the iPad, you can even get alerts when publishers update content, and download new updates to textbooks, at no additional charge (Apple). Having the ability to update a book almost instantly is a perfect way to keep students informed, and avoid them using books with outdated material. Implementing these tablets in classrooms is a great idea. The more relevant and up to date the information is, the greater the chances that a student will learn the material. According to an article in mobilemedia.com, Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt claims that through the use of iPad's, students test scores increase by about 20%. (Maragioglio). Because tablets make learning so easy and fun, students are more motivated to learn from the ebooks within the tablet. Hard copy textbooks are great for teaching and have been around for

V3 many years, but these digital textbooks are interactive and allow for built-in quizzes which motivate students to participate, and gives them their results instantly. There are also videos and beautiful animated graphics which can contribute to a students learning experience. With all of these options available through the use of tablets or iPads, students will begin to look forward to learning and going to school, and by making the learning experience more appealing it will allow them to grasp the material being taught in the classroom a lot faster. In an effort to see how well tablets can contribute to learning, the One Laptop Per Child organization gave tablets loaded with educational apps to two villages in Ethiopia. Nicholas Negroponte, OLPCs founder commented that, within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs, and within five months they had successfully hacked the tablet's operating system and customized the desktop settings (Talbot). If tablets can help illiterate children who have never had any kind of education in reading or in writing and enable them to learn how to read by themselves, then tablets and iPads would be a great addition to any classroom. For years schools have been using countless amounts of paper in classrooms. In an article in edutopia.org, a school of 1,000 students on average spends between $3,000-4,000 a month on paper, ink, and toner, not counting printer wear and tear or technical support costs (Johnson). Schools with higher student rates are looking at spending between $30,000 to $50,000 a year, thats enough to invest in technology like tablets that use no paper and can be used to write notes, instead of writing on paper. Using tablets can be cost effective and help schools save money. Analyzing how much money is spent on paper and other materials, its more convenient for schools to use tablets and iPads instead of paper. Books will always be an important part of history, they have great information, superb content, and there is nothing like touching and smelling a brand new book. But as the years pass

V4 by, and books become obsolete and more expensive in the long run, tablets and iPads will become the new source of information for students K-12. Tablets are more portable than textbooks and wont cause any back injuries. They make updating information and content from author to text book a lot easier. Tablets also help students learn and motivate them to participate in class, and are cost effective, saving money for school districts by cutting down costs on paper usage. We dont know how long books will still be used in our schools, but as we are seeing today tablets and iPads are improving and enhancing the way students learn in school, and should be implemented in schools across the nation.

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Works Cited iBooks textbooks for iPad. Apple.com. Apple Inc. 2012. Web. 02 Dec. 2012. Johnson, Ben. Paper and Pencil Curriculum: How. Edutopia.org. The George Lucas Education Foundation, 23 Feb. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2012.

ProCon.org. "Tablets vs. Textbooks ProCon.org." tablets-textbooks.procon.org. ProCon.org, 5 Dec. 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2012. Maragioglio, Janet. IPads Boost Math Scores, Benefit Education. Mobilemedia.com. Mobiledia Corp, 31 Jan. 2012. Web. 4 Dec. 2012 Stickel, Sue. Textbook Weight in California: Data and Analysis. Cde.ca.gov. California Department of Education, 12 Mar. 2004. Web. 5 Dec. 2012 Talbot, David. "Given Tablets But No Teachers, Ethiopian Kids Teach Themselves." Mashable.com. n.p. 29 Oct. 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2012