There is a heated debate going on in most schools but it not over drugs or violence, It is about whether schools should switch to tables instead of old-fashioned textbooks. There’s a lot of good supportion to switch to easier to use tablets instead of textbooks. While there’s a of doubt ,from people who don’t know the modern era, say that they are too expensive and easily distracted there are many more positives that are good than negatives, which most can be proven wrong. As Tablets save paper, can be updated with the newest information with the fastest technology available, that can hold thousands books and papers in one tablet. Even though Tablets can be distracting, tablets should be used in schools in this modern day because It helps kids learn and connect to more ideas than textbooks and no need for paper anymore as everything is digitally.

Tablets help students learn and connect to school work with updated information. Eighty-one percent of K-12 teachers believe that "tablets enrich classroom education”.Technology-based instruction can reduce the time students take to reach a learning objective by 50%-80%, according to the US Department of Education and studies by the National Training and Simulation Association. The scores students are getting using tablets instead of textbooks is much higher if they have tablets. Students who used online version of an Algebra 1 textbook for Apple's iPad in California's Riverside Unified School District in 2012 scored 20 percent higher on standardized tests vs. students who learned with print textbooks, this would be nation-wide scores and learning going up which is what the United states is looking for. So tablets can school work but what else can they do?

A school with 100 teachers uses on average 250,000 pieces of paper annually. 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 according to ProCon.org. Those are some numbers, there are schools out there with 5,000 teachers and 20,000 students. Tablets can take a lot of those pieces of paper away if schools switched to tablets and help save trees. It can also help save money by not having to print paper and spend money on ink and printer repairs. So instead of getting rid of trees and spending money we should switch to tablets and help save trees and money.

In addition, with the large number of classes that students take, carrying around a different textbook for each class can hurt…literally. While doctors recommend that people should carry a maximum Of 15% (study done by Nutrition Research Center)of their body weight, books for the four to five academic subjects exceed that limit. This results in over 13,000 backpack-related injuries a year for kids between the ages of 5 to 12. Tablets, on the other hand, weigh only about one to two pounds, yet are able to store thousands of information for numerous courses and hold tens of thousands of times the content that textbooks do.

Tablets are a $35 billion industry with roughly one in three adults owning a tablet, it is a huge growing industry that can help kids learn constantly. Earlier this year, Apple sold 19.5 million iPads while Samsung sold 8.8 million tablets to schools or districts., according to the International Data Corporation . This shows a lot of schools are deciding to head toward the the direction of tablets. One of the main reasons why schools are starting to switch is because textbooks need to be re-bought every three to five years but tablets can be automatically with new content and information. Meanwhile, too many students still have textbooks that are 7 to 10 years old. An example some students are using textbooks that don’t even cover 9/11 or Barack Obama being president. Students need newer content to learn. Tablets can updated instantly to get information and help your education. Textbooks are, information wise, for about 3-5 years but tablets can be updated instantly and used for a long time.

All of these reasons are why tablets should be used in school. Benefits of students using tablets instead of textbooks are that they’re lighter than print textbooks, can hold hundreds of books and papers helping save trees.. Meanwhile, Digital Promise, an independent nonprofit authorized by Congress to help the advancement of digital learning in the United States, has already created the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools, a national coalition that partners start-ups, research institutions, and a network that includes 2.5 million students. This shows that congress is starting to push digital learning which is what is needed in this modern day era. Even though Tablets can be distracting and have some dysfunctional issues tablets should be used in schools in this modern day because it is easy to carry around and It helps kids learn and connect to more ideas than textbooks and no need for paper anymore as everything is digital.

Works Cited

Álvarez, Brenda. "As More Schools Embrace Tablets, Do Textbooks Have a FightingChance?" NEA Today

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Reiss, Dawn. "Textbooks to Tablets." District Administration Magazine. Chicago Stories, n.d. Web. 03 Dec.

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