Benefits Of Providing Technology To Students

Providing Technology to Students
Imagine walking around for seven hours, with a textbook for almost every class along with notebooks and binders to go along with it. It was found that students are carrying backpack loads that weigh 15% more than their actual body weight (“Study: School Backpacks Too Heavy”). This can damage the body along with their posture. If these physical textbooks are replaced with digital textbooks on computers or iPads, that will take off a great load of weight, thus improving children’s health. Education systems all across the country are switching to digital textbooks and electronics to replace paper textbooks. They save schools money because of their constant updating of information, opposed to purchasing new textbooks …show more content…
They can learn at their own pace, and also communicate with their teachers easier. When students are at school, they are given their work and expected to be able to take it home and get it finished. This is easy for work that is on paper and all the information is provided, but is difficult when the work is online and a computer or electronic device is needed. Schools provide computer labs for students to go into and work on during class, but when these labs are in use by others, some students do not have access to them. Teachers assume that the students already have the technology needed to work at home, when in reality some students are not as privileged to have electronics of any sorts at home. Some students are limited on time while using the labs or other technology, because they cannot work at home like others. This is harder on some because they cannot work at the pace needed for the time they are given. According to Christopher Davidson in his article about adopting mobile technology, “Online learning allows students to work at their own pace, in the environment that is the most comfortable to them” (Davidson). Students also find it much easier to read their text off of their mobile electronics. In the article “Fifth Annual VitalSource/Wakefield Survey…” from VitalSource Technologies Inc., it was shown that “. . . those who used devices to read digital course …show more content…
Physical textbooks contain information from the year that it was bought and the years before that date. This information is helpful for teaching older material, but when years pass and the textbook becomes out of date, it will not be much help because it does not contain newer information. With digital textbooks, they can be updated with new information that comes out, and this will help save money that may be spent on new textbooks every year. Students who have the lowest quality of electronics should be able to access the digital textbook just as easy as a student with the highest quality of electronics. The different learning programs should be easy to control and easy to access. Stated in Christopher Davidson’s article about adopting mobile technology, “The content should be designed so that it works on the least advanced device, so that the large range of students can access it” (Davidson), this statement supports the idea of wide range access. The online material can also be downloaded in different ways; This idea can be supported by an article from the New York Times about textbooks becoming digital, it states, “Digital textbooks are any books that can be downloaded to an e-reader or computer or those that can be read online using a Web browser” (Shuetze). The technology that will be provided to students, will not only contribute to the digital