Today, technology has become one of the crucial aspects of living, and youngsters are becoming growingly dependent on their high-tech devices. That made many schools incorporate them in the classroom, and numerous parents believe they're essential for modern education.
However, many scientists and doctors warn about their excessive use and the effects of the digital era.
As a result, Reddam House Private School, situated in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, has banned the use of iPads and gone back to regular textbooks. The school claims it was done because of the feedback they received from students, that prefer pages to screens.
The school has used those devices for the past five years, yet found that they don't improve the technical skills of the students yet hindered their learning instead.
Principal Dave Pitcairn said that students were distracted by messages and other alerts, and they learned better when searching through a textbook since they found it easier to research and take notes.
"The ease of navigation through the textbook was easier with the hard copy. I believe they learn better the more faculties they use, the more senses they use in research and reading and making notes."
He also explained that they hadn't gone away from hard copy entirely, as they kept year 11 and 12 hard copies. When students got to year 11 and made a comparison between digital and hard copy, they preferred the hard copy. They found it easier to navigate through the textbook with the hard copy.
He added that students learn better the more faculties they use, the more senses they use in research, reading, and making notes, as reported by Healthyfoodhouse.com.
IPads were only introduced in 2010 and adopted into classrooms in the subsequent years, and the conflicting research between iPads and textbooks reveals there are pros and cons to everything.
Canadian research which involved 6,000 students that use iPads every day for learning, highlighted the pros and cons of this practice.
The study demonstrated that students had easier access to information and were more motivated; on the other hand, however, they developed poor writing skills and were distracted during classes.
According to a global report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), education systems which have invested heavily in computers have seen no significant improvement in the reading, maths and science skills in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests.
The OECD’s education director, Andreas Schleicher added that if we look at the best-performing education systems, like those in East Asia, we can conclude that they've been quite cautious about using technology in their classroom. Furthermore, students that use tablets and computers often tend to do worse than those that use them moderately.
Although many studies have demonstrated that iPads in the classroom can increase the engagement of students, the educational benefits of such device use for learning have not been formally evaluated.
Many claim teachers lack the skills to truly leverage the potential of using those devices to boost learning and technology skills among students.
However, the use of technology requires upgrades, which is undoubtedly a concern considering the low education budgets.
There's also a need for control of the use of the devices, particularly when it comes to internet access.
Moreover, students were shown to engage better with a physical textbook and to comprehend better when learning from actually printed textbooks.
We shouldn't forget the effects of the blue light emitted by these devices, that may lead to permanent eye damage, and their use has been associated with mental health issues and delayed language development, sleeping, obesity, and attention problems, and more.
The use of digital devices could even cause addiction, depression, chronic stress, and irritability.
The decision made by Reddam House Private School in switching back to print is right.
If we plan to use these devices to their full advantage, teachers need to be better trained, and we need more data suggesting they're beneficial for students.
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