Tablets versus Textbooks Essay

One in three adults own a tablet. As tablets are becoming more and more common a new debate has formed over whether K-12 school districts should switch from print textbooks to digital textbooks on tablets. The first benefit of digital textbooks is that students will have new information at their fingertips. The second benefit is that high level education prefers tablets. The negative about having a tablet is that many people don’t have wi-fi. As you can see, the benefits out-weigh the negatives by far and there really should be no debate. On a tablet e-textbooks can be updated instantly to get new editions or information. Schools will not have to constantly buy new copies, which few public schools buy due to the high prices of textbooks. Most public schools still have history books from when Bush was president. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that, â€Å"too many students are using books that are 7-10 years old with outdated material.† Subjects are especially beneficiary to subjects that constantly change, such as Science and History. On e-textbooks new editions and new information can be constantly at your fingertips. High-level education officials prefer tablets over textbooks. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission chair Julius Genachowski said on February 1, 2012 that schools and publishers should â€Å"switch to digital textbooks within five years to foster interactive education, save money on books, and ensure classrooms in the US use up-to-date content.† The federal government, in collaboration with several tech organizations, released a seventy-page guide for schools called the â€Å"Digital Textbook Playbook,† a â€Å"roadmap for educators to accelerate the transition to digital textbooks.† Some say that using tablets is more expensive than using print textbooks. Putting tablets in K-12 schools involves buying the tablet and the textbooks, building new wi-fi structures, and training administrators how to use the technology. Costs for e-textbooks on IPad tablets are 552% higher than new print textbooks in an average high school. A prominent education marketing expert Lee Wilson, estimated the annual cost per student per year to be seventy-one dollars and fifty-five cents versus fourteen dollars and twenty-six cents for print textbooks. Although, this is true they are thinking of the now and not keeping in mind the later. Right now, yes that much money will be spent but in the long haul it will add up to save you money. Just in a year E-textbooks can save schools between two-hundred and fifty dollars and one thousand dollars per student per year. Also, tablet prices are dropping as the years go by, making them even more affordable. Tablets cost on average four-hundred and eighty-nine dollars in 2011, three hundred and eighty-six dollars in 2012, and are projected to cost two hundred and sixty-three dollars in 2015. In the end using tablets is less expensive than using textbooks. As times are changing it’s important that we roll with the times. Using tablets in school will help supply students with new information all the time and high level education prefers them. Some may have wrong interpretations of them being more expensive than textbooks but as you read, they are not. Clark, Alli. â€Å"Online Textbooks: Friend or Foe? – Private Tutoring and Test Prep – Educational Connections.† Private Tutoring and Test Prep Educational Connections. N.p., 3 Sept. 2013. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. â€Å"LEAD Commission.† Lead Commission, Np., Nd. Web 27, September 2013. Long, Julie. â€Å"IT Solutions Blog.† 9 Benefits Of Classroom Technology: Ebooks. N.p., 28 June 2013. Web. 07 Oct. 2013.